Bernarda Albas Haus

In the organizer's words:

by Alice Birch after Federico García Lorca
translated by Ulrike Syha
Director: Katie Mitchell

The door is closed. For the next eight years, none of the women are allowed to leave the house, according to a tradition that mandates a period of mourning of this magnitude after the death of the husband. The five daughters are in shock. Their mother Bernarda Alba enforces the rule relentlessly, by force if necessary. The house becomes a prison. Sealed off from the world and imprisoned with their hunger for life, their immobilized sexuality and their desire for freedom and dignity, anger at the repressive patriarchal system spreads among the women. They soon turn their pain against themselves and others until disaster strikes.

With "Bernarda Alba's House", his last play shortly before his murder by the fascists of the Spanish military dictatorship, the poet Federico García Lorca created one of the most impressive tragedies of the 20th century. British author Alice Birch has turned this harrowing drama about female oppression, thwarted desire and violent generational struggles into a contemporary stage narrative. In doing so, she further develops the artistic compositional principle of simultaneous parallel montage, which she impressively applied together with director Katie Mitchell in the production "Anatomy of a Suicide", invited to the 2020 Berlin Theatertreffen.

Alice Birch is one of the most successful British theater and film writers. She recently caused a sensation as the screenwriter of the internationally acclaimed series "Normal People", based on Sally Rooney's global bestseller.

Invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2025

With: Mayla Häuser, Sachiko Hara, Josefine Israel, Henni Jörissen, Eva Maurischat, Eva Maria Nikolaus, Linn Reusse, Joël Schnabel, Bettina Stucky, Luisa Taraz, Alberta von Poelnitz and Julia Wieninger

Director: Katie Mitchell
Stage: Alex Eales
Costumes: Sussie Juhlin-Wallen
Lighting: James Farncombe
Composition: Paul Clark and Melanie Wilson
Original sound: Melanie Wilson
Dramaturgy: Sybille Meier

Further information: Bernarda Albas Haus | Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg