Finished just two months before the author's murder on 18 August 1936 by a gang of Franco's supporters, The House of Bernarda Alba is now accepted as Lorca's great masterpiece of love and loathing. Five daughters live together in a single household with a tyrannical mother.When the father of all but the eldest girl dies, a cynical marriage is advanced which will have tragic consequences for the whole family.Lorca's fascinatingly modern play, rendered here in an English version by David Hare, speaks as powerfully as a political metaphor of oppression as it does as domestic drama.The House of Bernarda Alba premiered at the National Theatre, London, in March 2005.
