Yerma

Synopsis

Yerma is a humble peasant woman, who longs for a child. In her village all her friends are raising families, but she remains childless. She tries to be light-hearted and believes that she and her husband will soon be blessed with a baby. As long as her condition, or lack of it, is temporary, she endures it and seeks to remedy it! Gradually Yerma's deep love for her husband turns to disbelief and then hate as she discovers he does not want a child. However, her own pride and honour forbid her to take pleasure or revenge with another man. Overcome with desire and frustration Yerma is driven to the ultimate crime of passion....

Our Review:

Ron Simpson - 9 March 2011

At first sight it seems perverse to set as distinctively Spanish a play as Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma in rural Ireland, but at least Ursula Rani Sarma’s decent and intelligent version is preferable to the melodramatic excursion into Andalusian exoticism that sometimes passes for Lorca. However, in Roisin McBrinn’s production it never has the sensuality or the visceral power one looks for: Yerma seems an oddly slight play.

As a narrative it is, in fact, fairly slight. The main character remains childless through the passage of several years of marriage (Yerma means “barren” in Spanish). Her husband Juan is much more interested in his farm and regards the absence of children as an advantage. Any element of passion in Yerma’s life is supplied by thoughts of Victor the shepherd, but as a respectable wife she does nothing. Her desperate need for a child leads ultimately to tragedy.

However, the plot enables Lorca...

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