ATTEND A SPANISH 'WEDDING' WITH A TWIST.

Byline: Julio Martinez Correspondent

Writer/director/actress/producer Odalys Nanin has staged an inventive and intriguing adaptation of legendary 20th-century Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca's tragic folk drama, ``Blood Wedding.''

Her staging has a lesbian theme and features an excellent, almost all-female cast with Nanin taking on the role of hot-tempered Leonardo. Translated from the original Spanish by Nanin and Adelina Anthony, Lorca's lengthy stage work has been trimmed to a bare-bones 90 minutes that certainly highlights the poetic sensuality of Lorca's tale but does not offer enough of the original storyline to fully appreciate the passion-driven events that lead to the ultimate tragedy for two star-crossed families.

Nanin has set the work in Los Angeles during 18th-century Spanish colonial days, when tradition-bound families owned huge rancheros and quite often arranged marriages of convenience to increase their holdings and status in society. Lorca's central theme focuses on the inevitable sorrow that occurs when two deeply loving individuals are deterred from being together.

Leonardo had once courted a beautiful maiden - whom the playwright calls the Bride (Adelina Anthony) - but family circumstances forced him to marry her cousin, who is now his much neglected Wife (Jossara Jinaro) and the mother of his son. The Bride is now promised in marriage to a prosperous young man, the Groom (Laura Vega); but neither personal honor nor family obligation can keep Leonardo from claiming what he feels in his soul is rightfully his. The centuries-old blood feud that permeates everyone's consciousness is not investigated enough in Nanin's adaptation to fully understand the fierce emotions that underscore the attitudes and actions of the groom's Mother (played with a hypnotic, controlled fury by Irene De Bari) and the Groom's land-hungry Father (Jade Hykush).

The circumstances behind Leonardo's imposed marriage are given such short shrift, it is difficult to empathize with the Wife's unrelenting anguish and the Bride's anger toward her cousin. And once it is revealed that Leonardo is actually a woman, a huge question mark arises over the parentage of Leonardo's infant son. None of these plot deficiencies, however, detracts from the driving force of this work: the tangible ardor between Nanin's Leonardo and Anthony's Bride. Lending solid support are Vega's overanxious Groom and Sue Ozeran's gossipy Neighbor.

In a bit of ironic casting, the role of the Bride's comical female Servant is adroitly played by a man (Pete Leal). The production's sensual atmosphere is underscored quite nicely by the sound design of Jamie Dunlap, the musical direction of Eliana Deza and the lighting/costume designs of Anne Marie Wear. Dan Reeder's simple set design serves its purpose.

``BLOOD WEDDING''

Where: The Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; through Oct. 22.

Tickets: $20. Call [phone].

Our rating: Two and one half stars