The House of Bernarda Alba
The laughter as people made their way out of the auditorium could have led you to believe that we had come out from a comedy, but instead it was that laughter of relief you get after surviving a traumatic experience. We didn’t get off to a great start as a couple of big guys with big heads sat down in front of us, so our view was a bit punctuated by shuffling about to see properly. I was sort of hoping they wouldn’t come back for the second half but they did. Actually the second half was so gripping I hardly noticed it any more. After the death of her husband, Bernarda locks her daughters and her own mother in the house for an eight year period of mourning. I gather the original version was written during the Spanish Civil War and whatever way you look at it this is a pretty effective play about tyranny, but making this a female cast (except for the dancing and wordless Pepe El Romano, played by a muscular James McHugh*) added an additional layer. The wom...