About the Play:

The House of Bernarda Alba is a full-length drama by Federico García Lorca adapted in English by Emily Mann. Bernarda is a stern matriarch obsessed with family honour. Just widowed, she announces to her five daughters that that they will mourn for eight years in total solitude. Little does she know that a man from town has captured the hearts of more than one of her daughters, and the resulting passion in the face of oppression leads to an unforgettable climax that will change Bernarda's family forever.

The House of Bernarda Alba takes place in a small village in southern Spain following the funeral of Bernarda Alba's second husband. After the mourners depart, the Bernarda announces that they will enter a traditional 8-year period of cloistered mourning. Obsessed with family honour, tyrannical matriarch rules the household with an iron fist, but all of her daughters secretly harbour a passion for Pepe el Romano, the handsomest man in the village. The eldest daughter is engaged to him, but the arrangement is a financial one, and it is the youngest daughter, Adela, who becomes his lover. When the truth finally breaks through the atmosphere of suppressed desire, jealousy, anger and fear, the consequences are tragic. Adela takes her own life and Bernarda makes a desperate attempt to maintain control of her shattered household. A masterpiece of the modern theatre, The House of Bernarda Alba is considered by many the greatest of Spanish tragedies.

The House of Bernarda Alba was venerated Spanish writer Federico García Lorca's last work, written in the time leading up to the Spanish Civil War, a mere three months before his death in August 1936. It was first performed in 1945 at the Avenida Theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This English adaptation by Emily Mann premiered in 1997 at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, and has been performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 12 female, 1 child (flexible casting)

What people say:

"The fury and sweep of Ms. Mann's amazing production of Federico García Lorca's amazing play…can knock down the walls and shake the earth." — The New York Times

"I am really impressed by this production and as a translator I can say that this is the best translation of The House of Bernarda Alba I've ever seen or imagined…it's just splendid. It awakens all of my professional envy." — Christopher Maurer, Lorca scholar and translator

"…a riveting new adaptation …The House of Bernarda Alba is one of the strongest and most fascinating theatrical events of the season." — Star-Ledger

About the Playwright:

Emily Mann is is an American playwright and director, who is also artistic director and playwright-in-residence at the McCarter Theatre in in Princeton, New Jersey. Her award-winning plays have been produced throughout the world. Her numerous awards for artistic excellence include a Guggenheim, a Playwrights Fellowship and Artistic Associate Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Rosamund Gilder Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Theatre. In recognition of her achievements illuminating the possibilities for social, cultural and political change, she was awarded the Lee Reynolds Award.