“La Casa de Bernada Alba” by Fedrico Gardia Lorca
Nottingham New Theatre

The play starts just after the funeral of Bernarda Alba's second husband.

Domineering matriarch Bernarda Alba imposes an eight-year mourning period on her household. Bernarda has five daughters, aged between 20 and 39, whom she has rigidly controlled and prohibited from any form of relationship. The mourning period isolates them and tension mounts within the household.

Youngest sister Adela, defies her mother's orders and wears a green dress instead of remaining in black. Her joy is shattered when she discovers that Angustias will be marrying Pepe.

Bernarda sees Angustias wearing makeup. Appalled that Angustias would defy her orders to remain in a state of mourning, Bernarda violently scrubs the makeup off her face.

The other daughters enter, followed by Bernarda's elderly mother, Maria Josefa, who is usually locked away in her room. Maria Josefa announces that she wants to get married. Bernarda forces her back into her room and locks her in again.

We discover that Adela and Pepe are having a secret affair. Adela becomes increasingly volatile, defying her mother and quarrelling with her sisters, particularly Martirio, who also has feelings for Pepe.

Needless to say with all this going on, the play ends on a tragic note.

The all female cast of actors are Nicole Klutse, who makes her debut at NNT as Bernarda, Sophie Mackenzie, also making her debut as La Poncia, Katie McCabe, again making her NNT debut as Adela, Daisy Forster, another debut performer as Martirio, Philippa Horn,and another NNT debut first timer as Angustias, Helena Hunt as Amelia, Katie Booth as Magdelena, Sherifah Dawodu, also an NNT debut as the crazed Maria Josefa, Sofia Loreti as a servant and Edie Gillett as Prudencia.

The show has a lot of shouting and some parts did make parts a bit difficult to hear the words plainly. At the other end of the scale there was just a few parts where the projection could have been more prominent, but this was after all, first night and I'm sure that this will be worked out for the rest of the run.

Director Caetano Capurro makes his directorial debut here, assisted by Pete Rouse, and produced by Ella Seber-Rajan.

I'm not sure how much of the original play has been edited for this 80 minute production, but it just seemed like there was something missing. Maybe it is the writing, i don't know as this is the first time that I have seen this play, so I have no prior knowledge, so have no benchmark to measure or compare with.

It's not a play that I would rush to see again, and it didn't hit any lasting emotional notes for me by the end of the play. That said Nicole's highly emotional performance as Bernarda, and the forceful slapping of her daughter in one scene did provoke a bit of a shock factor for me.

This play's themes though do fall in nicely with the charity that NNT are supporting this season, Mind for better mental health.

“La Casa de Bernada Alba” is at the Nottingham New Theatre until Saturday 14 March.