La Casa de Bernarda Alba

La Casa de Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca
Reviewed by Anosh
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So a bit of background…La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) is part of Lorca’s “rural trilogy”. The play itself was written in 1936 just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War which, without giving you an entire history lesson, was between the fascists and the communists. Lorca was a communist and was killed just two months after finishing this play. As the play is part of a trilogy I’ll do separate reviews for the other two plays.

When you initially read the play, without thinking about it deeply at all, it seems it’s just a bunch girls all swooning over the heart throb, Pepe el Romano, whilst their bossy mum tries to dictate their lives. However, once you look more deeply into the themes and the dramatic techniques Lorca uses, it’s clear that this piece is a masterpiece. The general theme of the play is repression; women are repressed by men; the poor are repressed by the wealthy; the younger generation are repressed by the older generation. In terms of literary elements, Lorca is clearly a huge fan on symbolism: he uses heat to symbolise oppression, Bernarda’s cane to symbolise her blindness as well as her way of asserting her power etc. But by far, my favourite element in the play is the fact that no men appear on stage - all the characters are played by females. Because of it, he can really show the great power men hold over women in that the events that unfold throughout the play are all the result of men’s actions. All in all, it’s a great read and a quick one too