Lewes lament for tragic poet

A spokesman said: “The works of the legendary Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca remain popular long after his brutal murder in 1936 by a Fascist gang in the opening weeks of a vicious civil war that was to tear Spain asunder and begin a brutal 40-year dictatorship.

“Lorca, fatefully, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, was both of the wrong political views and of the wrong sexuality. Spain during a bitter Civil War was a very bad place to be in any way liberal. Those choices cost him his life. Federico Garcia Lorca distilled into his poetic works the very essence of Andalucia, the searing heat, the riotous colours, the joys, the passions, the comedies and the tragedies.

“Cancion Gitana portray Lorca’s extraordinary life and violent death, his very close friendships with the artists Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, his fascination with gypsy culture and his passionate interest in fiery Flamenco dance and song which led him to organise, with composer Manuel de Falla, a competition in 1922 to find the best Flamenco singer in Andalucia.

“Lament for Lorca was created by the spectacular Flamenco dancer/choreographer Helena La Leyenda and features an international company of Helena, Varina Verdin, Mirela Giol and talented young dancers Nancy and Natsuki with poetic cameos by Madrid’s Rosario Serrano, the ethereal voice of legendary Andalucian singer Fernando Reyes and the passionate Flamenco guitar of Tomas de Cordoba. Cancion Gitana have created a passionate and dramatic re-telling of the life and death of an artist, the biography of an artist depicted in the Flamenco he loved, a man destroyed by savage forces as the country he loved was torn apart by a brutal civil war. In a 100-minute 30-scene, spectacular with many costume changes, narrations, dramatised poetry, slide projections, films and striking lighting, Cancion Gitana create Flamenco dance theatre in a manner very rarely seen on UK stages.”