This play recreates Lorca's tale of the Shoemaker who grows tired of his flighty, flirtatious, much younger wife and leaves her, to her astonishment even though she had expressed a desire for him to do so, only to return in disguise as a travelling puppeteer. This translation by Lucinda Coxon was written for the 2006 National Shell Connections in association with the National Theatre in London and is presented by Arnold Drama, a young people's theatre group based at Arnold School in Blackpool.
The production opens with a nice tableau using the whole cast with a row of shoes across the front of the stage - which changes to a row of bottles when the stage changes to a bar. The play is opened with a speech from 'the writer', which is read from the script by David Thorp, who does not seem very familiar with the words. Sophia Bayjoo gives an energetic if at times rather shrill performance in the title role, and Jack Hughes gives a very natural and mature performance as the shoemaker. The puppet show begins quite effectively, using human actors performing as puppets, but then runs out of steam a bit.
While it is far from perfect, this young company does a reasonable job of keeping the interest during this short piece.
(Originally awarded 2½ stars.)