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The House of Bernada Alba: Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)
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eBook - ePub
The House of Bernada Alba: Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)
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About This Book
Drama Classics series
The world's great plays at a great little price.
Each pocket-sized volume contains:
a full introduction
an author biography notes on historical and theatrical context
a plot synopsis key dates
a further reading list a glossary of unusual words and phrases (English-language texts)
Lorca's extraordinarily powerful drama, The House of Bernada Alba, is the last he wrote before his assassination, explores the darkness at the heart of repression.
When Bernarda's husband dies, she locks all the doors and windows. She tells her grown-up daughters to sew and be silent. 'There are eight years of mourning ahead of us. While it lasts not even the wind will get into this house.' But locks can't hold back the growing tide of desire.
This edition, translated and introduced by Jo Clifford, also contains a chronology and suggestions for further reading.
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Yes, you can access The House of Bernada Alba: Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics) by Federico García Lorca in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literatur & Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
ACT TWO
White room inside BERNARDA’s house. Doors to the left lead to the bedrooms. BERNARDA’s DAUGHTERS are sitting in chairs, sewing. MAGDALENA embroiders. LA PONCIA is with them.
ANGUSTIAS. I’ve just finished the third sheet.
MARTIRIO. For the third daughter. Amelia: your sheet.
MAGDALENA. What shall I put on yours, Angustias? Shall I put on Pepe’s initials too?
ANGUSTIAS (curtly). No.
MAGDALENA (loudly). Adela, are you coming?
AMELIA. She’ll be in bed.
LA PONCIA. There’s something wrong with that girl. She’s always trembling. She’s frightened of something. And she won’t keep still. As if she had a lizard between her breasts.
MARTIRIO. She’s just like the rest of us. She’s got to put up with it.
MAGDALENA. All of us except Angustias.
ANGUSTIAS. And I’m fine, thank you very much, and anyone who doesn’t like it will just have to explode.
MAGDALENA. You’ve always been noted for your tact.
ANGUSTIAS. Fortunately I am about to leave this hell.
MAGDALENA. Let’s hope you never do.
MARTIRIO. That’s enough, both of you!
ANGUSTIAS. Better to have gold in your chest than pretty eyes in your face!
MAGDALENA. It’s all just going in one ear and out the other.
AMELIA (to LA PONCIA). Open the door a bit and let in some fresh air.
LA PONCIA does so.
MARTIRIO. Last night I was so hot I couldn’t sleep a wink.
AMELIA. Me neither!
MARTIRIO. I had to get up to try and cool down. There was this great dark storm cloud in the sky and I could have sworn I felt a few drops of rain.
LA PONCIA. It was one in the morning. The earth breathed fire. I got up too. Angustias was still at the window with Pepe.
MAGDALENA (ironically). So late? What time did he go?
ANGUSTIAS. Why ask if you saw him yourself?
AMELIA. He must have left about half-past one.
ANGUSTIAS. How do you know?
AMELIA. I heard him cough and I heard the hooves of his mare.
LA PONCIA. But I heard him about four!
ANGUSTIAS. You can’t have done.
LA PONCIA. I’m sure I did!
MARTIRIO. I thought I heard something too.
MAGDALENA. How very strange!
Pause.
LA PONCIA. Angustias, tell us what he said. Go on. What did he say the first time he came to your window?
ANGUSTIAS. Nothing special. What do you think he’d say? He just said… ordinary things. Things people say.
MARTIRIO. It really is the oddest thing. I mean, there’s two people who don’t know each other at all. Who’ve never even spoken to each other in their lives before. And suddenly there they are. At a window. Looking at each other through iron bars. About to get married.
ANGUSTIAS. But that’s the way it’s done. It’s just normal. It doesn’t feel a bit strange to me.
AMELIA. It would make me feel funny.
ANGUSTIAS. But it doesn’t. Not when it happens. Because when a man comes up to you at the window it’s all been settled already. He knows you’ve got to say yes.
MARTIRIO. Yes, but he’s still got to ask.
ANGUSTIAS. Obviously!
AMELIA (with avid curiosity). Then what did he say?
ANGUSTIAS. He just said, ‘You know I want you. I need a woman who’s good, and well-behaved, and if you agree, that’s you.’
AMELIA. Things like that make me feel ashamed!
ANGUSTIAS. Me too, but you just have to put up with them!
LA PONCIA. Is that all?
ANGUSTIAS. He said other things too. He did all the talking.
MARTIRIO. But what about you?
ANGUSTIAS. I couldn’t say a word. I was too frightened. It was the first time I’d ever been alone with a man.
MAGDALENA. And such a handsome man too.
ANGUSTIAS. He’s quite good-looking!
LA PONCIA. The things that happen when people start to know what they’re doing! The things they say and do with their hands…! The first time my husband Evaristo el Colorín came to my window… (Laughs.)
AMELIA. What happened?
LA PONCIA. It was really dark. But I could see him coming. And when he got up to the window, he said, ‘Good evening.’ And then I said, ‘Good evening,’ and then we never said a word for half an hour. I was drenched in sweat. And then Evaristo came up to me, came up so close it was as if he wanted to squeeze between the bars and he said, in a very low voice, he said, ‘Come here so I can feel you!’
They all laugh. AMELIA suddenly breaks off and runs to listen at a door.
AMELIA. Oh! I thought I could hear Mother coming.
MAGDALENA. She’d have skinned us alive!
They keep on laughing.
AMELIA. Ssssshhhh! She’s going to hear us!
LA PONCIA. After that he behaved himself. He could have taken up all sorts of things, but instead he took up canaries. None of you are married, and when you are, the first thing you’ve got to learn is that after a fortnight your man’ll get tired of making love. All he’ll care about then is his stomach. And after a fortnight of that, all he’ll care about is the nearest bar. And anyone who doesn’t like it just has to go inside a corner and cry herself to pieces.
AMELIA. You didn’t do that.
LA PONCIA. I could stand up to him!
MARTIRIO. Is it true you used to beat him?
LA PONCIA. Of course. I tell you, once I almost poked his eye out.
MAGDALENA. That’s the way women should be!
LA PONCIA. I’m like your mother. One day he said something that really annoyed me and I killed all his canaries. I took the pestle and squashed their heads. It was something he said. Really got up my nose. I can’t remember what it was now.
They all laugh.
MAGDALENA. Adela, don’t miss this.
AMELIA. Adela.
Pause.
MAGDALENA. I’ll go and see! (Goes into her room.)
LA PONCIA. That girl’s ill!
MARTIRIO. What else do you expect? She hardly ever sleeps!
LA PONCIA. Then what does she do at night?
MARTIRIO. Do you really want to know?
LA PONCIA. You’ll know better than me. You sleep next door.
ANGUSTIAS. She’s eaten up by envy.
AMELIA. Don’t exaggerate.
ANGUSTIAS. No, it’s true. I can see it in her eyes. She’s starting to look a bit mad.
MARTIRIO. Don’t talk about madness. Not here. Don’t even mention the word!
Enter MAGDALENA with ADELA.
MAGDALENA. I thought you’d have been asleep.
ADELA. I couldn’t sleep. My body’s gone bad.
MARTIRIO (pointedly). You don’t get enough sleep at night.
ADELA. Maybe.
MARTIRIO. Well then?
ADELA (fiercely). Leave me alone! It’s none of your business how much I sle...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Contents
- Introduction
- For Further Reading
- Lorca: Key Dates
- Characters
- Act One
- Act Two
- Act Three
- Translator’s Note
- Copyright and Performing Rights Information