Product Description

Bernarda Alba is a widow, and her five daughters are incarcerated in mourning along with her. One by one they make a bid for freedom, with tragic consequences. Lorca's tale depicts the repression of women within Catholic Spain in the years before the war. The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca's last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real characters and described by the author as 'a true record of village life', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women rulled by a tyrannical mother. Edited with invaluable student notes - a must for students of Spanish drama

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54740 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

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 the Author
Federico Garcia Lorca was born in 1898, in Andalusia, Spain. A poet and dramatist, and also a gifted painter and pianist, his early popular ballads earned him the title of 'poet of the gypsies'. In 1930 he turned his attention to theatre, visiting remote villages and playing classic and new works for peasant audiences. In 1936, shortly after the outbreak of Civil War, he was murdered by Nationalist partisans. His body was never found.

Customer Reviews

A clever, compelling play
This is a wonderful play, which starts slowly but gathers momentum as it rolls towards a tragic finale. Bernarda Alba is the central character, a matriarch who seeks to repress her daughters in every way possible; however, she can't repress what they feel in their hearts. Each of her five daughters falls in love with the handsome Pepe el Romano, with terrible consequences. The atmosphere is electric, full of the oppressive heat of the summer when it is set, and with that is the gradually increasing tension and the warning signals of what is to come. I strongly recommend it to anyone; it is shrewd in its observations of the behaviour of women.