La Casa De Bernarda Alba

THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA


(La Casa de Bernarda Alba)


By Federico Garcia Lorca

In a new translation by Caridad Svich








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February 2003.







THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA



Characters:

BERNARDA, sixtyyears old
MARIA JOSEFA, Bernarda’s mother, eighty years old
ANGUSTIAS, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty-nine years old
MAGDALENA, Bernarda’s daughter, thirty years old
AMELIA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-seven years old
MARTIRIO, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty-four years old
ADELA, Bernarda’s daughter, twenty years old
SERVANT, fifty years old
PONCIA, sixty years old
PRUDENCIA, fifty years oldBEGGAR WOMAN with LITTLE GIRL
WOMEN MOURNERS
WOMAN 1
WOMAN 2
WOMAN 3
WOMAN 4
YOUNG GIRL


Author’s note: These three acts are intended as a photographic document.























ACT ONE


An extremely white inner room in Bernarda’s house. Solid walls. Arched doorways with jute curtains edged with tassels and ruffles. Cattail chairs. Nonrealistic landscapesof nymphs and fairy-tale kings. It is summer. A great ominous silence fills the stage. When the curtain rises, the stage is empty. The sound of tolling bells is heard. The Servant enters.

SERVANT
The sound of those bells is right inside my head.

PONCIA
(Appears eating bread and sausage) They’ve been tolling for more than two hours now. Priests have come from all the villages. The churchlooks beautiful. During the first response Magdalena fainted.

SERVANT
She’s the one who will be the most alone.

PONCIA
She was the only one her father loved. Ay! Thank God we’re alone for a little while! I have come to eat.

SERVANT
If Bernarda were to see you…!

PONCIA
Since now she’s not eating, she wants us all to starve! She is so bossy, so domineering! Well, she can go to hell. Ihave opened her sausage jar.

SERVANT
(With sad longing) Poncia, why don’t you give me some for my little girl?

PONCIA
Go ahead. And take a fistful of chickpeas too while you’re at it. She won’t notice a thing today!

VOICE
(From off) Bernarda!

PONCIA
The old woman. Is she locked up properly?


SERVANT
With two turns of the key.

PONCIA
You should put the bar across as well.Her fingers are like five picklocks!

VOICE
Bernarda!

PONCIA
(calling out) She’s near! (To Servant) Make sure everything is sparkling clean. If Bernarda doesn’t see everything shining here she’ll pull out what little hair I’ve got left.

SERVANT
Oh, that woman!

PONCIA
Tyrant of all she surveys. She could sit on your heart and watch you die slowly for a year and not once unfix that coldsmile from her damn face! Go on, go on, and clean those dishes!

SERVANT
My hands are blood raw from washing-up all the time.

PONCIA
She’s the cleanest, she’s the most decent, and she’s the most superior of beings! Her poor husband has earned himself a good long rest.

[The bells stop.]

SERVANT
Have all the relatives come?

PONCIA
Only those on her side of the family. His familyhates her. They came to make sure he was dead, and send him on his way.

SERVANT
Are there enough chairs?

PONCIA
More than enough. Let them sit on the floor. No one has ever set foot in this house
Since Bernarda’s father died. She doesn’t want anyone to see her on her own stomping ground. Damn her to hell!

SERVANT
She’s always been good to you.

PONCIA
Thirty years I have washed hersheets; thirty years I have eaten her scraps. I’ve spent many a sleepless night when she’s had a cough; I’ve spent whole days spying on the neighbors through the window slits so I could bring her all the gossip. There have been no secrets between us, and yet, I still say damn her to hell! I’d like to stick a burning nail in her eyes!

SERVANT
Woman!

PONCIA
But I’m a good bitch: I bark...