House of Bernarda Alba – Online Program

On August 19, 1936, 37-year-old Spanish writer Federico García Lorca was assassinated. His socialist views created tension with the Civil Guard and the rise of General Francisco Franco, who would become the infamous leader of Spain from 1939 to 1975. The reason Lorca was given before he was shot was for engaging in “homosexual and abnormal practices”.

Lorca is best known as a playwright for three texts that make up what is best known as his Rural Trilogy: Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba. Themes of oppression, strict societal norms, and the imposition of roles for women in society were all portrayed through the lens of strong female leads. Lorca was not only known world-wide as a playwright and poet, but he was also one of the few public figures of the time who was openly gay. Some think that the characters in Lorca’s plays are representing the playwright’s desires; that is, acknowledging that the women in Lorca’s plays came from the passion, desires and needs of a queer voice that was silenced in the closet.

The closet, in this case, is a symbolic place that limits the freedom of discourse. The theory is that Lorca coded a series of messages to communicate with the queer audience. The meaning behind the 2SLGBTQIA+ cast playing Lorca’s female characters in this production is symbolic. They embody the queer playwright’s desires and needs through the female figure. They also reveal and expose the real oppression experienced by the women of the time. We explore the reconcilement of the oppression faced by the play’s females along with the playwright’s silenced passions. This is an exercise of vindication, of transgression, of pride, of awareness. This is the physicality, the theatricality.

The performer’s exploration of queer matters within the text is the production’s core, its soul.