“You have to claim your desire!”

After the death of her second husband, Bernarda Alba imposes an uncompromising eight-year mourning period. Her house closes itself off from the world. No one may enter, no one may leave. Her five daughters remain trapped within its walls, under their mother’s constant watch and the weight of rules that cannot be questioned. Angustias, Magdalena, Amelia, Martirio and Adela. Each of them copes with their situation in her own way. One waits for marriage. Another is consumed by envy. Another tries to survive in silence. And the youngest refuses to accept that someone else has already decided her future for her. Because outside there is real life. Outside there is love. Outside there is the possibility of choice. And there is also a man who becomes the object of their fantasies, desires and rivalry. The tighter Bernarda’s rules become, the more tension builds beneath the surface. Whoever disobeys ceases to be a daughter. Whoever resists threatens the honour of the entire family. And whoever dares to speak out may unleash something that can no longer be stopped.

Alice Birch reimagines Lorca’s iconic text in a form that speaks to contemporary audiences with extraordinary urgency. She preserves its poetry and symbolic power, while giving the characters raw psychological depth, contemporary language and intense emotional force. The play powerfully explores the theme of female existence in a patriarchal world: our relationship with our bodies, sexual frustration, trauma passed down through generations, and the mechanisms through which people internalise the rules that ultimately constrain them. While Bernarda believes in order, reputation and control, her daughters long for something seemingly simple, yet dangerous: the right to decide for themselves. Each searches for her own path, and each pays a different price for it. Can the attempt to protect a family from the outside world ultimately lead to its destruction? Where does care end and control begin? And what happens when you forbid someone to live, but cannot forbid them to desire?

Alice Birch’s The House of Bernarda Alba is a powerful statement about the price of obedience and the courage it takes to defy a world that dictates how a woman should live, love and breathe.

CHARACTERS AND CAST
BERNARDA: Bohdana Pavlíková
MARÍA JOSEFA: Marie Málková
ANGUSTIAS: Andrea Buršová
MAGDALENA: Marie Štípková
AMELIA: Katarína Mišejková
MARTIRIO: Barbora Křupková
ADELA: Aneta Kalertová
PONCIA: Zuzana Zlatohlávková
PEPE: Jan Mansfeld

PRODUCTION TEAM
TRANSLATION: Ester Žantovská
ADAPTATION: Jakub Šmíd and Norbert Závodský
DIRECTOR: Jakub Šmíd
DRAMATURGY: Norbert Závodský
ST AGE DESIGN: Petr Vítek
COSTUMES: Martin Chocholoušek
MUSIC: Ivan Acher
MOVEMENT COLLABORATION: Jaroslava Rameš Janečková
LIGHT DESIGN: Karlos Šimek
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR & STAGE MANAGER: Blanka Popková
PRODUCTION: Tereza Bajcar

The provisional cover image was created with the help of generative AI.