TEHRAN – An adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1936 play “The House of Bernarda Alba” is on stage at the Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater in Tehran.

Arass Rad is the director of the play, which has Sahar Rostamian, Shadan Kouchaki, Forough Farzinfar, Houra Khosrowmanesh, Romina Hosseini, Tannaz Moghaddam, Helia Shahsavari, Atena Shirazi, Sara Vahednoei, Dorsa Ebrahimi, Farnaz Faramarzi, Hojjat Khorasani, and Saeid Rajabiasl in the cast, Mehr reported.

A three-act tragedy, “The House of Bernarda Alba” was Garcia Lorca's last play, completed in June 1936, two months before his assassination during the Spanish Civil War.

The play tells the story of a repressive and domineering widow who forces her five unmarried daughters to remain in mourning for their father, sequestered with her on the family estate, for eight years. Frustrated and angry, the women respond in their individual ways to their mother’s cruelty, and the play ends in violence.

The play centers on the events of a house in Andalusia during a period of mourning, in which Bernarda Alba (aged 60) wields total control over her five daughters, Angustias (39 years old), Magdalena (30), Amelia (27), Martirio (24), and Adela (20). The housekeeper (Poncia) and Bernarda's elderly mother (María Josefa) also live there.

A high level of tension is present throughout the play. The play explores themes of repression, passion, and conformity, and examines the effects of men upon women.

Garcia Lorca described the play in its subtitle as a drama of women in the villages of Spain. Commentators have often grouped it with “Blood Wedding” and “Yerma: as the Rural Trilogy. He did not include it in his plan for a “trilogy of the Spanish land” (which remained unfinished at the time of his murder).

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898 – 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theater director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature.

In addition to “The House of Bernarda Alba,” he is known for the plays “Blood Wedding” (1932) and “Yerma” (1934).

“The House of Bernarda Alba” will remain on stage through February 25 at the Neauphle-le-Chateau Theater, located at No. 18, Razi St., Neauphle-le-Chateau St., Hafez Ave.

SS/SAB