The House of Bernarda Alba

After the death of her second husband, the stern and domineering matriarch Bernarda Alba, becomes the head of the household. Observing the ancient tradition, she imposes eight years of mourning on her five daughters and firmly closes the doors and shutters of the sun-drenched Andalusian country house. Black-clad daughters, some in their prime, some already past it, must thus renounce all contacts with the outside world and their dreams of love, except for the eldest, who, because of her inherited wealth, is preparing to be married to the richest and handsomest man in the village. The young man Pepe Romero rocks not only her world but the universe of the entire family. He sparks passion in two more sisters, thus increasing the female hysteria in the house. Envy and hatred, as well as the dynamics of violence between them, become more important than the man in front of the house, who is merely the trigger.

The House of Bernarda Alba is the final play by the cult Spanish poet, playwright and all-round artist of the interwar period Federico García Lorca, which he finished mere months before the phalanxes executed him at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Together with Blood Wedding and Yerma it forms the poetic “rural trilogy” of tragedies based on the conflict between the power of fate and human passions. These tragedies intertwine drama with poetic, lyrical expression. The House of Bernarda Alba reveals the tyranny of the moral and societal laws, tradition and patriarchal authoritarianism, which destroy the lives of individuals, particularly women. It shows the gap between personal freedom and social convention. The struggle is not only between people but also within them. As the director Yulia Roschina says, the play is “a record, an imprint of the (inner) dynamic of us, the children of patriarchy. In front of and inside us, it opens the collective wound of separation, alienation and the absence of love, warmth, softness and tenderness. We can only confront judgment, comparison, competition and constant (inner) control by revolting, by ‘giving as good as we get’, that this is the only way to tap into our power. Yet, the production awakens our deep inner knowledge that the way to our salvation is in forgiveness and that our greatest strength is in tenderness.”