Music, dance deepen dark in ‘Bernada Alba’
Federico García Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba” seethes with negative emotions — jealousy, repression, anger.
The Spanish playwright’s 1936 masterpiece was performed this season at Seminole State College. Now Theatre UCF takes a crack at the dark tale by presenting Michael John LaChiusa’s 2006 musical adaptation, titled simply “Bernarda Alba.”
For some, the addition of discordant songs and rhythmic dance might take the negativity over the top. Not for me, though.
Director Julia Listengarten makes the songs and the movement feel organic to Lorca’s tale.
It doesn’t feel as though the story stops for a dance break; everything flows smoothly as if it was meant to be.
“The House of Bernarda Alba” was a good choice for a musical because so much of the drama happens inside the characters’ heads — as is the wont of musicals, the songs let the audience know what they are thinking.
Most of the characters are thinking they want to escape their dreary lives.
Bernarda Alba’s second husband has just died, as the story opens — with an attention-getting introduction that breaks the fourth wall and sets the stage à la “Attend the tale...” in “Sweeney Todd.”
The matriarch runs her household of five daughters, her senile mother and various servants, in the traditional manner — and with an iron fist.
Her eldest daughter, who is well off thanks to a bequest from her late father, has a chance at escaping the oppressive household through marriage. But the youngest daughter has her own plan for escape as her sexuality blossoms.
Listengarten nicely keeps each daughter distinct and the actors make them memorable — especially Colleen Broome as Martirio, whose bitterness and pain flashes across her face with chilling intensity.
Lexi Nieto brings a carefully balanced dash of modern spirit to Adela, the youngest daughter, without breaking the period spell. Ana Martinez Medina has an almost animalistic roughness as the title character, which contrasts nicely with Ibis Enid Rodriguez’s almost spectral presence as the addled grandmother.
Vandy Wood’s set conveys the house’s claustrophobia with its barred windows and heavy door that always slams with a despairing thud. Earl D. Weaver’s choreography stirs the heart with its promise of action tinged with menace. The orchestra, led by Kelly A. Miller, perfectly complements the singers. (Hallie Chapman, as caustic Magdalena, also does fine a cappella work.)
The only relationship that doesn’t feel quite right is the complicated one between Bernarda and her principal servant. But the rest of “Bernarda Alba” unwinds like music to your ears.