The House of Bernarda Alba follows the plight of the widow Bernarda. After her husband's death, she locks the doors and windows against the world and imposes a strict period of mourning on her five daughters. Under the shadow of the church and the rules of society, the women conflict and spiral into emotional chaos. Relocating one of Lorca s best known works to rural Iran, Iranian stage and screen actor Shohreh Aghdashlo will be leading the cast as Bernarda Alba.
Dates: Opens 26 January 2012. Mon-Sat 19:30. Sat Mat 14:30. Jan12 26 at 19:00. Extra Mats Feb12 15,29 at 14:30 23 February 2012 19:30 - Open Captioned (STAGETEXT)
In 2010 Tamasha transplanted Lorca's classic matriarchal drama to Pakistan, and now the Almeida presents a version (scripted by Emily Mann) that sets the action in rural Iran.
The result is a production that, while visually impressive and eventually harrowing, gets somewhat tangled in its transition and proves more effective at uncovering Lorca's sexual politics that those of contemporary Iran.
In the title role, Iranian stage and screen actor Shohreh Aghdashloo is a striking, husky-voiced ice queen – a woman who can barely disguise the sexual frustration that so appals her in her own daughters.
Ostensibly grieving for her husband, by imposing an atmosphere of chaste mourning on her household she only succeeds in tightening a lid on a pressure cooker, and the girls' inevitable frustrations come spilling out through the windows, where lovers lurk in waiting.
Tensions rise between eldest daughter Asieh (Pandora Colin), who has money and is betrothed, and youngest daughter Adela (Hara Yannas), who has beauty and wants the only eligible man in the village for herself.
Meanwhile the Mrs Rochester-esque grandmother (Jasmina Daniel) lurks in the attic and the long-suffering maid (Mia Soteriou) tries to stay sane. Perhaps the best performance comes from Jane Bertish as aunt Darya, peering over her reading glasses to regale the desperate girls with tales of the outside world. There is also strong support from Sarah Solemani, lending rare humour as Maryam, and Amanda Hale as the heart-breakingly fragile Elmira.
Director Bijan Sheibani injects energy where he can - a neat visual trick at the beginning is sure to snap any weary audience members to immediate attention. But the focus lags during a drawn-out opening sequence with the local villagers and is only revived again once the expositional scene-setting is over.
Much of these longueurs are Lorca's doing, of course, but when there is so much boldness elsewhere in the production, it is in other ways disappointingly coy.
Nevertheless, it's all played out on Bunny Christie's mesmerising design (a blue-walled, high-windowed rural manor), and the final tragic moments are deeply stirring.
This was Lorca’s last play, written in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It remained unperformed for over ten years and wasn’t seen on stage in Spain for almost 30 years. Some believe it was a prophetic metaphor for the tyranny Franco was about to unleash.
Recently widowed Bernarda Alba is presiding over a more personal tyranny, with her mother and five daughters relentlessly bullied and virtually imprisoned. An offstage character is the subject of the attentions of two of the daughters, betrothed to the one with the inheritance (though I’m not sure I understand why she alone is an heiress) and subject of the obsessive attentions of another.
Adapter Emily Mann and director Bijan Sheibani have relocated the play from Spain to Iran and this does help a modern audience identify with the situation, both the personal tyranny and the tyranny outside the walls of the house. The scene where c.30 women in black (20 ‘extras’!) are facing Mecca and praying rams this home. The problem with Lorca’s play is that the first 80% is spent establishing the backgound and creating the oppressive atmosphere which leads to the tragic conclusion; this lack of balance and pace is its weakness.
Bunny Christie has created an evocative, claustrophobic setting ‘behind the walls’, aided by a superb soundscape from Dan Jones. You really do get a clear understanding of what it must be like living in these circumstances.
The acting throughout is impressive. Shohreh Aghdashloo has great presence as Bernarda. Jane Birtish and Mia Soteriou are excellent as housekeeper and maid, and the actresses playing all five daughters create five very different characters, each of which is completely believable.
It’s not a great play, fascinating but badly paced and somewhat depressing (though it does have moments of humour), but this is a very good production which drew me into the world of Bernarda’s family and the tyranny more than any other. - Gareth James
08 Feb 12
In Iran, men repress women. In this play, women repress women, and there are no men at all (the cast is ten women). So, it's not clear to me why it needs to be set in Iran. Congrats to the sound designer though, who's crickets and street sounds conjure up the feeling of a sweltering Middle-Eastern backdrop, beyond the claustrophobic household interior of the Alba household. In this production, Shohreh Aghdashloo, who was tough enough to take on Jack Bauer in 24 Season 4, is here even tougher (so tough some might say she's a caricature). She's like Voldemort in charge of St. Trinians, hissing like a snake and lashing out suddenly to beat an errant daughter with her walking stick. The daughters, forced to mourn and refrain from men for 8 years, are so thoroughly under her cosh, that the play allows for little dramatic action over it's one hour forty minutes running time. The production does have a creepy ambience though, with dim lighting and the sound of crickets providing a backdrop for lust-fuelled females to creep around a dark house at night. Amanda Hale comes off strongest as the middle child, with neither money nor looks, but the most simmering passion. This is a play for completists. It's not got enough dramatic meat for the picky, but the creepy atmospherics and sudden spooky outbursts, of females at war with each other, are memorable enough to make the production worthwhile. - steveatplays
28 Jan 12
The most boring play I have ever seen during the last four years at The Almeida. I cannot understand why it was chosen. Such a pity so much time was wasted on it. - john gurnhill
28 Jan 12
The transfer to Iran doesn't make any sense, and Shohreh Aghdashloo appears to be in a different play from everyone else. However, the supporting cast are excellent and the set and lighting are truly atmospheric. - addicted to theatre
27 Jan 12
Dreadful. The acting, script and direction were all dire - the only thing to be said for it was the set! What on earth were the Almeida doing putting this on in the first place? Staggeringly over acted to the point of becoming a macabre pantomime. Surely black actors deserve to be given better material, which does not patronise or pigeon hole them, than this. And one other thing what was it with the clunky accents? It was an African 'ello 'ello. The incredibly slow response to applaud at the close of the first act tonight was a clear sign of what the audience thought of it. - rds
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