La Maison de Bernarda Alba

Written at the dawn of the Franco regime, The House of Bernarda Alba is one of the few plays in the repertoire with an all-female cast. In a village in the Andalusian countryside, weighed down by tradition and patriarchy, a family lives in isolation. The mother, Bernarda, makes life difficult for her five unmarried daughters, but when the eldest is about to enter into a marriage of convenience with the most handsome man in the region, the entire household is thrown into disarray. Masks fall, hearts burn with passion, the community tears itself apart, and rhetoric becomes increasingly radical in a frenzied escalation.
Through poetic and vivid language, Lorca dissects gender relations and creates a superb gallery of female characters, far removed from stereotypes. This new translation, faithful to the play’s modernity, is followed by a historical context and an excerpt from a prose work, Impressions and Landscapes, which sheds light on the author’s intimate relationship with his unforgettable masterpiece.