The House of Bernarda Alba
by Alice Birch
after Federico García Lorca
a co-production with Playful Productions
Booking and details
You bring such scandal to my house
In the domain of Bernarda Alba, a daughter who disobeys is no longer a daughter.
Forced to live under their mother’s tight grip as they mourn their father’s death, can five sisters survive when young Adela dares for passion and freedom?
Olivier Award-winner Harriet Walter (Succession) plays the formidable matriarch, guarding her reputation against the rising tide of her family’s desires in this pitch-black drama exploring the consequences of oppressing women.
Following Olivier Award-winning revivals of Cabaret and A Streetcar Named Desire, Rebecca Frecknall makes her directorial debut at the National Theatre with Alice Birch’s (Normal People) radical version of Federico García Lorca’s modern masterpiece.
Performed 16 November 2023 — 6 January 2024 in the Lyttelton Theatre.
Reviews
★★★★
‘A chilling take on the evergreen Lorca classic’
Telegraph
★★★★
‘Desolately powerful’
Financial Times
★★★★
‘A magnificent drama’
The i
Suitability
Please note: This production features strong language, nudity and some scenes of a sexual nature, gunshots, and depictions of violence. It contains graphic depictions of death and suicide that some may find distressing.
More advice and guidance
Supporters
This production is supported by the Red Butterfly Foundation.
Gallery
Production images
Rehearsal images
Video
Cast
Lizzie Annis
Lizzie Annis is an actor and writer.
Pearl Chanda
Pearl Chanda is an English actress.
Rosalind Eleazar
Rosalind Eleazar is and English stage and screen actress.
Isis Hainsworth
Isis Hainsworth is a Scottish actress.
Bryony Hannah
Bryony Hannah is a British actress, best known as Cynthia Miller in BBC One’s Call the Midwife.
Catharine Humphrys
Catharine Humphrys is a British actress and co-founder of Triple C Theatre in Guildford.
Thusitha Jayasundera
Thusitha Jayasundera is a Sri Lankan actress.
Asha Kingsley
Asha Kingsley is an actress, singer and model.
Marcia Lecky
For the National Theatre: Coriolanus, The House of Bernarda Alba, Much Ado About Nothing, Paradise, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Top Girls
James McHugh
James McHugh is a London-based actor, singer and dancer.
Michael Naylor
Michael Naylor is an actor and choreographer. He performed on the Spice Girls 2019 stadium tour.
Celia Nelson
For the National Theatre: Dear Octopus and The House of Bernarda Alba
Eileen Nicholas
Eileen Nicholas is a Scottish actress.
Eliot Salt
Eliot Salt is an actor and writer.
Ellouise Shakespeare-Hart
Ellouise Shakespeare-Hart is a London-based actress.
Georgia Silver
For the National Theatre: London Tide and The House of Bernarda Alba
Imogen Mackie Walker
Imogen Mackie Walker is an actress and dancer.
Harriet Walter
Harriet Walter is an award-winning actress and writer.
Charlotte Workman
Charlotte Workman is a stage and screen actress.
The role of Young Girl is played by:
Esma Akar
Esma Akar’s work in theatre includes Waitress at Wimbledon Theatre; and Dick Whittington, Beauty and the Beast and Peter Pan at Epsom Playhouse. TV includes Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn. Short films include The Eternal Oblivion and Hooked.
Livia Court
The House of Bernarda Alba is Livia Court’s professional theatre debut.
Sicily Rose De Bernardini
Sicily Rose De Bernardini made her West End theatre debut in 2022, playing Young Eponine in Les Misérables.
Production team
Playwright
Director
Rebecca Frecknall
Rebecca Frecknall
Rebecca Frecknall is a director and Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre.
Set and Costume Designer
Merle Hensel
Merle Hensel
Merle Hensel is a set and costume designer for theatre, opera, dance and film.
Lighting Designer
Composer
Isobel Waller-Bridge
Isobel Waller-Bridge
Isobel Waller-Bridge is a composer and sound designer for stage and screen.
Sound Designer
Fight Director
Intimacy Coordinator
Ingrid Mackinnon
Ingrid Mackinnon
For the National Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest, Coriolanus, Underdog: The Other Other Brontë (also Northern Stage), The House of Bernarda Alba, The Effect (also The Shed, New York) and Phaedra
Dramatherapist
Patricia Ojehonmon
Patricia Ojehonmon
For the National Theatre: The LeftBehinds, The Grapes of Wrath, The House of Bernarda Alba and Grenfell: in the words of survivors (also St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York)
Casting Director
Alastair Coomer CDG
Alastair Coomer CDG
For the National Theatre: over 50 productions including Alterations, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Other Place, The Grapes of Wrath, Mnemonic (2024), Nye (also Wales Millennium Centre), The House of Bernarda Alba, Othello, The Crucible (also West End), Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Mosquitoes, This House, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, One Man, Two Guvnors and War Horse
Casting Director
Naomi Downham
Naomi Downham
For the National Theatre, as casting director: Alterations, A Tupperware of Ashes, The Grapes of Wrath, Underdog: The Other Other Brontë (also Northern Stage), The House of Bernarda Alba, The Crucible (also West End), The Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK tour), Hamlet (school tour) and Jekyll & Hyde (school tour)
Company Voice Work
Cathleen McCarron
Cathleen McCarron
For the National Theatre: Ballet Shoes, The Other Place in association with A Zeldin Company, Coriolanus, Mnemonic (2024, a co-production with Complicité), Nye (also Wales Millennium Centre), Till the Stars Come Down, The House of Bernarda Alba, The Confessions, Dear England, The Motive and the Cue, Death of England: Closing Time and Romeo and Julie
Company Voice Work
Tamsin Newlands
Tamsin Newlands
For the National Theatre: Ballet Shoes, A Tupperware of Ashes, The Hot Wing King, Nye (also Wales Millennium Centre), Till the Stars Come Down, Jekyll & Hyde and The House of Bernarda Alba
Staff Director
Lilac Yosiphon
Lilac Yosiphon
Lilac Yosiphon is a writer-director and the Artistic Director of Althea Theatre.
Photography (Harriet Walter) by Charlie Clift.