The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca

Spring 2015

Cast

Jane Barton

Natalie Cheese

Ruth Clarke

Gillian Davis

Kay Fitzgerald

Tina Gallagher

Barbara Gray

Rebecca James

Charlotte Maughan Jones

Heather Leslie

Fiona Murch

Eleanor Lamb Wright

Director Karen Wright

Themes

The deliberate exclusion of any male character from the action helps build up the high level of sexual tension that is present throughout the play. Pepe “el Romano”, the love interest of Bernarda’s daughters and suitor of Angustias, never appears on stage. The play explores themes of repression, passion, and conformity, and inspects the effects of men upon women.

Overview

Upon her second husband’s death, domineering matriarch Bernarda Alba imposes an eight-year mourning period on her household in accordance with her family tradition. Bernarda has five daughters, aged between 20 and 39, whom she has controlled inexorably and prohibited from any form of relationship. The mourning period further isolates them and tension mounts within the household.

After a mourning ritual at the family home, eldest daughter Angustias enters, having been absent while the guests were there. Bernarda fumes, assuming she had been listening to the men’s conversation on the patio. Angustias inherited a large sum of money from her father, Bernarda’s first husband, but Bernarda’s second husband has left only small sums to his four daughters. Angustias’ wealth attracts a young, attractive suitor from the village, Pepe el Romano. Her sisters are jealous, believing that it’s unfair that plain, sickly Angustias should receive both the majority of the inheritance and the freedom to marry and escape their suffocating home environment.