On Monday 6th March 2023, our Year 12 Spanish students, had the opportunity to visit the remarkable and gritty theatrical performance of “La Casa de Bernarda Alba” at the Cervantes Theatre in London.  Many different aspects of Spanish society of that time were represented and highlighted by reminiscing Federico’s García Lorca most famous play.

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), poet and playwright, was one of the greatest Spanish writers of the 20th century. He was killed by the Nationalist faction at the age of thirty-eight at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, two months after completing ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ his most famous play which was censored from the start and until 1950. Its premier was allowed subject to censorship and cuts and until 1978 was only approved for “minors older than 14”.

In the Cervantes Theatre, the production of The House of Bernarda Alba explored the themes of repression, passion and conformity through the depiction of a matriarch’s domination of her five daughters. Described by the author as “a drama of women in the villages of Spain”, the deliberate exclusion of any male character from the action helps build the high level of tension that is present throughout this masterpiece. We had the opportunity to witness how Lorca demonstrated this harsh reality and the tragedy of the lives of women in rural Spain at the time under the repression of the dictator Franco.  The tension was unmistakable, and the raw and up-close delivery of this masterpiece was a great source of discussion over tapas!

Our Year 12 group also met up with sixth formers from Dartford Grammar school to discuss what they have seen and to discuss over some authentic Spanish food what it is like to study Spanish in sixth form. We ate at Don Felipe’s tapas restaurant in The Cut where students chose from a wide range of delicious tapas as their conversations flowed!