On Monday 21st March the sixth form Spanish groups enjoyed the great opportunity of attending Roisin McBrinn’s compelling revival of one of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s great tragedies, Yerma, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

 

Frederico Garcia Lorca is one of Spain’s greatest dramatists who lived in the early 20^th century. Among other things Lorca was very much interested in oppression in society whether it was the dominating presence of the Catholic Church or men’s power over women. Since he was a homosexual, he had a lot of sympathy with the oppressed and showed his frustration at not being able to express himself openly in society through his works, such as his tragedy Yerma.

 

Yerma, which in Spanish means ‘barren’, is a married woman living in rural Spain who is unable to fulfil her function as a woman and have children. As the play progresses Yerma, driven by the desperation to have children and the longing to fit into the repressive Catholic community she lives in, starts to go mad. As Yerma’s marriage crumbles and the buzz of village-women’s gossip increases around her, she is forced to commit one last irreversible act.

 

What with the stimulating drama and the much needed ice-cream in the interval- everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Report by Alexandra Hamiliton