Royal Exchange: The House of Bernarda Alba

WE WILL BRICK UP THE DOORS AND BOARD UP THE WINDOWS. WE WON’T LET IN A BREATH OF AIR FROM THE STREET.

Bernarda’s husband is dead. Now she alone rules her household and the lives of her five daughters. A period of eight years mourning will be observed without contact with the outside world and the men who might bring them ruin.

That is except for Angustias, whose inheritance has attracted a wealthy local suitor. As the wedding approaches, Bernarda struggles to retain her suffocating grip on the family and on these women whose appetite for defiance is growing.

Lorca’s final masterpiece is a bitter and darkly comic tragedy that charts the tyranny, jealousy and desperate struggle for freedom that will tear Bernarda and her daughters apart.