The ground is breathing fire, we’re told, in “The House of Bernarda Alba,” the Spanish classic by Federico García Lorca that opened Tuesday at the National Theater in London in a ferocious new version by Alice Birch.
The show runs through Jan. 6.
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall and starring Harriet Walter from “Succession” in the imperious title role, it really is scorching.
Lorca’s play about a tough-as-nails matriarch and her five unmarried daughters in 1930s Andalusia is regularly revived in theaters in England, but I’ve never seen an ensemble so fully committed to the play, which races toward its tragic finish with genuinely shocking force.
As Frecknall has demonstrated in work including that of Tennessee Williams and the Broadway-bound revival of “Cabaret,” she has a gift for reinvigorating familiar titles as though they were brand new.
Persons:
we’re, Bernarda Alba, Federico García Lorca, Alice Birch, Rebecca Frecknall, Harriet Walter, I’ve, Frecknall, Tennessee Williams, ”
Organizations:
National Theater
Locations:
The, London, Jan, Andalusia, England