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French Cultures Festival: La Maison de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba)

Presented by Et Voilà Théâtre at TBH Center (Talento Bilingüe de Houston)

March 6-March 20, 2010

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As part of the French Cultures Festival, Et Voilà Théâtre and Talento Bilingüe de Houston present La Maison de Bernarda Alba, a play by Federico García Lorca. The production will be presented in French and Spanish with English surtitles. Federico García Lorca’s last play, written in 1936, explores such themes as passion, oppression and conformity. Five sisters living on the edge of unfulfilled desires and unattainable dreams.

"The House of Bernarda Alba", Federico García Lorca's last play, was written in 1936, a few months before Lorca was jailed and executed. The plot takes place in a Spanish village in Andalusia, a country on the eve of the Civil War, oppressed by fascism. This masterpiece explores such themes as passion, oppression and conformity in a male dominated rural society, through the eyes of Bernarda and her daughters. The exclusion of any male character generates a high level of sexual tension, five sisters living on the edge of unfulfilled desires and unattainable dreams.

Besides being one of the great 20th century dramaturges, Federico García Lorca was an outstanding poet and a free spirit. Willing to honor his writing genius, the play will include selected poems recited in Spanish from "Romancero Gitano" by a special guest, actor Antonio Mazu that will portray the role of Federico García Lorca.

Challenged by the powerful and dramatic plot of "The House of Bernarda Alba", French sculptor Véronique Chalandar is coming from Paris following an Et Voilà Théâtre invitation, to create a scenic design inspired by the feminine characters of this play. She will use a technique that has been reproduced in all her "Originelles" collection: a sculpture built on a very fine structure, to emphasize the elevation of the characters, liberated from the traditional aesthetic models.

Plot summary:  After becoming a widow, Bernarda Alba holds her five daughters mourning for eight years. The young girls yearn for love and freedom but their dreams are suffocated by their mother's will. The eldest daughter, Angustias, born from Bernarda's first marriage, inherited much wealth from her father. Thus Pepe le Romano, the only man deemed worthy by Bernarda to marry any of her daughters, is engaged to Angustias, creating jealousy and frustration from the other sisters for they feel it is unfair.

Featuring:  Ewa Ciesielski, Anne Deshoulières, Valérie Huguet, Pascale Lazare, Perrine Legoullon, Marie Maurannes, Antonio Mazu, Ines Muñoz, Sylvia Paredes, Aurélia Peuchot, Anne-Laure Reymond Christensen, Laurence Sebeyran, Isabelle Vanasse Grosdidier, Joëlle Verstraeten.

Directed by Clara Ploux.

These events are funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston's City's Initiative Program through the Houston Arts Alliance.