THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA

Second part of Lorca festival directed jointly by UKZN’s Tamar Meskin and DUT’s Tanya van der Walt

Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba is the second part of this year’s Lorca festival following Blood Wedding in March. It is directed jointly by UKZN’s Tamar Meskin and DUT’s Tanya van der Walt and continues the collaborative project begun last year with the critically acclaimed FrontLines, which aims to bring staff and students from each of Durban’s Drama departments together.

Subtitled as a drama of women in villages in Spain, The House of Bernarda Alba, follows the events in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a house full of women, shut up for eight years of mourning. The recently-widowed Bernarda keeps her five daughters locked away from the world, exercising absolute control over their every move, but underneath the surface of their day-to-day life, the inevitability of the tragedy broods. The men, who represent both a threat and the promise of freedom, never appear onstage, but their absence looms large as catalyst in the catastrophic unfolding of events, in a story filled with love, lust, madness and betrayal.

Like Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba is a vehicle to investigate the subjects which fascinated Lorca: desire, repression, ritual, revenge, love, and family and the constraints and commitments of the rural Spanish community in which the play is rooted. Hauntingly beautiful and profoundly moving, this play is Lorca’s masterpiece and in it he evokes with passion and power the lives of repressed people everywhere in pursuit of freedom.

The production features a cast of 16 with set and costume design by Mervyn McMurtry and lighting design by Tina le Roux.

The House of Bernarda Alba runs in the Square Space Theatre, UKZN, from August 31 to September 5 nightly at 19h00. Tickets at the door or contact Claudette Wagner on 031 260 3133, or email wagnerc1@ukzn.ac.za