PARLOUR SETTING ADDS TO THE INTIMACY IN CAPTIVATING VERSION OF SPANISH TALE
Sexual repression and toxic masculinity are at the heart of 76-year-old drama
Sage Theatre's The House of Bernarda Alba is a stunning achievement and one that should not be missed.
Javier Vilalta, who translated, adapted and directed this production, has crafted a wholly captivating version of Federico Garcia Lorca's 76-year-old drama of jealousies, sexual repression and toxic masculinity.
The play centres around a wealthy patriarch of an influential family in a Spanish village who has died. His wife Bernarda Alba has dictated that their five daughters and the household must observe an eight-year mourning period, which means wearing only black and closeting themselves in their mansion.
Only Angustias, Bernarda's daughter from her first marriage, has any hope of escaping this tyranny because she is engaged to Pepe el Romano, a much younger man from the village whose interest is in Angustias's sizable inheritance. The four daughters from Bernarda's second marriage have small dowries and no land. Pepe is actually carrying on an affair with Adela, the youngest of Bernarda's daughters and is the secret love obsession of Matrino, the third-youngest daughter.
The house is rife with sexual tension because Bernarda has kept the tightest of reins on her daughters' virginities.
In his director's notes, Vilalta explains he that sees parallels between the desires and the repression of the daughters' sexuality in Lorca's play with how Lorca himself was denied the freedom to express his homosexuality in Spain in the 1930s. This is why Vilalta cast actors who are members of the queer community in the eight female roles in the play. It takes no time at all to accept Vilalta's casting choices because the actors are so committed to their characterizations.
Marshall Vielle ensures that Bernarda is austere, ruthless and domineering. There is no tenderness for any of her daughters and there is always the fear she may strike out with her cane if they oppose her. At one point she discovers Angustias (Conrad Belau) is wearing lipstick and wipes it off with fury.
As the euphoric, sexually liberated Adela, Ben Gaudet is all giggles and trembling with rebellious excitement whereas Tiffany Thomas, as the spiteful, vengeful Matrino, seethes with anger that will eventually explode.
The most complicated of Lorca's characters is La Poncia (Trevor Schmidt), the longtime maid and Bernarda's contemporary. In his witty opening monologue, Schmidt holds, caresses and kisses the photograph of Bernarda's husband, suggesting the man was much more than just La Poncia's employer.
In the scene where the daughters are embroidering, La Poncia emerges as a maternal substitute. She is the one who explains that it doesn't take any husband long to go from the bed to the kitchen and eventually the local bar, which is their destiny so they shouldn't obsess about who to marry.
It's not just the acting in Sage's The House of Bernarda Alba that makes it such a compelling experience. Vilalta has staged it in the round and Hanne Loosen circles sofas, armchairs, benches and end tables around the small acting area to suggest that the audience is sitting in the living room of the Alba home. The floors are covered with rugs and there are lamps and trinkets everywhere. Dangling from the ceiling are two skylights. For the audience, with the actors often just inches away, it becomes a totally immersive experience.
We are in their home and in their lives and it's riveting.
Shane Anderson's lighting design, Kristin Eveleigh's sound design and Norman J. Balenza-macdonald's authentic costumes are the finishing touches this haunting production deserves.