La Casa de Bernarda Alba

La Casa de Bernarda Alba is the third in a trilogy of rural tragedies by Federico García Lorca, widely regarded as Spain’s most distinguished twentieth-century writer. Written in 1936, just before the Spanish Civil War, it was Lorca’s final play. He was assassinated in the same year when the war began, and never lived to see it staged; it was not produced until 1945 in Argentina, and not until 1964 in Spain.

Like the other works in the trilogy, Bodas de Sangre and Yerma, La Casa de Bernarda Alba is set in a rural village in Lorca’s native Andalusia during a period of mourning in a household in which the title character wields total control over her five daughters. All secretly harbor a passion for the handsomest man in their village, to whom the eldest is engaged.

Still one of the masterpieces of modern theatre, the play portrays the tragedy of individual oppression with an extraordinary blend of lyrical passion and social detail, both hallmarks of Lorca’s drama. In an environment fraught with repression and sexual tension, the playwright creates an explosion of jealousy, hatred, and despair.

This bilingual production by the NHCC and Teatro Nuevo Mexico, following previous productions of the first two works in the Lorca trilogy, is adapted and directed by Salome Martinez Lutz, Artistic Director of Teatro Nueve Mexico.