House of Bernarda Alba
Written by Spanish playwright Frederico Lorca in 1945, Wild Rice’s The House of Bernarda Alba has been adapted to a peranakan context mostly through the set and the costumes, although quite strangely, the names of the characters remain true to the original.
The play centres on the matriarch of the family, Bernarda (played by Claire Wong) who is grieving the death of her husband. She imposes oppressive rules on her five daughters and the unfolding action focuses on their repressed desires, especially when an unseen, male suitor comes into the picture.
With an all-female cast, this is quite the opposite of Wild Rice’s Importance of being Earnest, which featured an all-male cast. Yet this is by no means a feminist play – the opposite happens instead where the female characters bow to society’s expectations and wait for a man to sweep them off their feet.
My female friends who watched the play seemed to identify better with the story-line. To me, it was simply dramatic overload. The 2-hour intermission-less play was dialogue-heavy and was peppered with loud screams and catfights on stage. Presented thus, I am not quite sure how relevant these themes of oppression and of keeping up appearances are today.
Of all the actresses, the one I liked best was Jo Kukuthas, who played Bernarda’s maid Poncia. She added an extra dimension to the play – where as an “outsider”, gave a different viewpoint to the ongoing drama and provided some comic relief as well.
What is my verdict? This could be either a hit or a miss for you. I bought tickets because of the big-name actresses and the alluring premise of the story. The production and the sets are great and professional. But I left the theatre confused about what I had watched, the drama so unnerving and raw that I may just need to stay away from the theatre for a while.