We round up the reviews for Rebecca Frecknall’s production, starring Harriet Walter.
The Stage: *** “Harriet Walter is chilling in Rebecca Frecknall’s visually stylish, slow-burn staging of Lorca’s classic.”
The Guardian: *** “There is great innovation here but the terrible swell of passion, frustration and intensity needed for the play to gain its full and devastating tragedy does not reach a head.”
The New York Times: “Directed by Rebecca Frecknall and starring Harriet Walter from “Succession” in the imperious title role, it really is scorching. Lorca’s play about a tough-as-nails matriarch and her five unmarried daughters in 1930s Andalusia is regularly revived in theaters in England, but I’ve never seen an ensemble so fully committed to the play, which races toward its tragic finish with genuinely shocking force.”
Time Out: **** “If Walter doesn’t get quite as much time to shine as she might in a more trad version, she’s still superb: an icy asset manager rather than a caring mother, who rules her little empire with an iron fist while lacking the humanity to understand why its collapse is inevitable.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “It’s a wrenching watch, a mix of contemporary and ancient, social and elemental tragedy, and a grim demonstration of how, as Birch puts it, simply being born a woman can feel like the greatest punishment. Bernarda’s climactic call for “silence” is the final stifling of a desperate female cry.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Walter is superb, subtle and dangerous, plucking at the air with her hands as she repeats “this house”, trying to hold on to what she believes. But the strength of the whole lies in a magnificent ensemble cast, each bringing surprising notes to characters who could become one-dimensional.”
iNews: **** “This is house as surveillance state – and a splendid evening’s theatre as long as you have not come for the sole purpose of seeing Walter.”
The Telegraph: **** “Harriet Walter is formidable as the icy matriarch at the centre of a play staged here as a horror show of the mind”
The Evening Standard: **** “The endings to the first and second act are among the most shocking things I’ve seen on stage recently. Not your average Christmas show then, but this is bracingly good and important.”
Broadway World: *** “Nevertheless, the doubly shocking denouement will live long in the memory, both for its hyper-realistic staging and its closing speech which, along with that of Sonya and Vanya, is the most shattering in theatre.”
The Independent: *** “Lorca’s final play, in which sisters find themselves stifled in 1930s rural Spain, heaves with repressed sexuality – but star director Rebecca Frecknall’s approach is surprising clinical.”
The Upcoming: **** “The cast delivers strong and heartwrenching performances. Harriet Walter excels as the cold, domineering Bernarda, while Marcia Lecky’s portrayal of Prudencia, the long-serving maid, embodies a complex mix of loyalty and defiance. Isis Hainsworth vividly incarnates Adela, the youngest sister, whose initial innocence and zest are gradually usurped by her frenzied affection for Pepe El Romano, the village’s young suitor. Lizzie Annis is perfect as Martirio, the jealous and disabled sister also in love with Pepe, who creeps the household’s corridors with a heartrending intent to thwart Adela’s romance.”
The Arts Desk: **** “It’s terrifically conceived and staged, Alice Birch’s excellent adaptation adds new layers to the play’s complexity, and Lorca’s world of emotional suffocation, sexual repression and parental abuse is richly evoked by a fine, all-female cast, led by a formidable Harriet Walter as the monstrous matriarch.”
Gay Times: **** ” We always find it slightly tricky to score a play like The House of Bernarda Alba – while it’s objectively a very impressive piece of theatre, whether or not the audience enjoys it is a different question. It’s a powerful and thought-provoking play which unfolds on one of the most impressive-looking sets we’ve seen, and the acting performances are universally strong. It does, however, tell a relentlessly bleak story – an impressive show, but certainly not one for the faint-hearted.”
The House of Bernarda Alba continues to play at the National Theatre until the 6th January 2024.