The House of Bernarda Alba - Softcover

Federico García Lorca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571227570 ISBN 13: 9780571227570

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2005

Synopsis

'Better never to lay eyes on a man, never to have seen one. Ever since I was a child, I've been frightened: the look of men, yoking up the oxen, picking up sacks of wheat, calling to each other, their thick voices, their thick boots. Every time I passed, fear of their hands, of their touch. God made me weak and ugly. It's his way of keeping them away.' So pronounces one of five unmarried daughters before her elder sister, being the richest if least attractive of the bunch, is hastily betrothed. The youngest, burning with desire, begins a passionate, clandestine affair with her sister's suitor. She's spied upon by a jealous sibling, with devastating consequences. The House of Bernarda Alba, in this new version, premieres at the National Theatre, London, in March 2005.

About this title

About the Author

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 - 1936), poet and dramatist was one the greatest Spanish writers of the twentieth-century. He was killed by Nationalist partisans at the age of thirty-eight at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. David Hare is a playwright and filmmaker. His stage plays include Plenty, Pravda (with Howard Brenton) Racing Demon, Skylight, Amy's View, Via Dolorosa, Stuff Happens, South Downs, The Absence of War and The Judas Kiss. His films for cinema and television include Wetherby, The Hours, Damage, The Reader and the Worricker trilogy: Page Eight, Turks & Caicos and Salting the Battlefield. He has written English adaptations of plays by Pirandello, Chekhov, Brecht, Schnitzler, Lorca, Gorky and Ibsen. For fifteen years he was an Associate Director of the National Theatre.

Review

'Best of all is Ann Mitchell's superb Bernarda Alba, who presides over her daughters like a malevolent mother superior. As polished and shiney as her own furniture, a husk of a woman who puts pride and honour before love and generosity, and who is so out of touch with her own heart that she ignores all the signs of the coming disaster, content to rule her house with her eyes wide shut.' Lyn Gardner, Gaurdian, 30 April 2009 It is a play about what happens to hearts when they are walled up and denied the opportunity to sweel with love and happiness' Lyn Gardener, Gaurdian, 30 April 2009

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0571227570
• ISBN 13: 9780571227570
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96