Spain shortly before Franco’s fascist regime. In the stifling atmosphere of that time Federico Garcia Lorca wrote his last play The House of Bernarda Alba, putting in the foreground repression, family tyranny, passion, religion and class prejudice. Some months after he has finished the play he was executed. He dies young shorty after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936.  The play was first performed in 1945.

The play: An Andalusian house during a period of mourning for her second husband, Bernarda Alba wields total control over her five daughters, the housekeeper and her mother.  The mourning is supposed to last several years. The emotions run high, there is open and hidden rebellion of the daughters. There is the shadow of a man in the air, brought up by the women in love with him.

A drama chosen by the Turkish Cypriot Theatre for the coming month of April.

The characters were excellently played, the choreography and mimicry well done; for me who does not understand too well the spoken Turkish words, the mimicry gave the clues to the knowledge I already had before from informing myself about the background of the play.

Unfortunately the actors did not come out a second time, I would have liked to thank them more.  My friend, a Turkish Cypriot, sitting next to me, asked: Why have they chosen such a theme, it is uncomfortable, we don’t have such conditions!

The director of the theatre is Mehmet Ulubatli; he is impatiently waiting for the new theatre building; the old one had burnt down many years ago. But next year it will be ready to receive us. Good luck!

If you want to reserve tickets for this pay: Call 2287191 or 0533 8684913.

For the month of April it will be shown on Fridays and Saturdays at the Atatürk Cultural Centre at 20:00

Copyright Heidi Trautmann