Federico García
Lorca
The House of Bernarda Alba
(La
casa de Bernarda Alba)
1936
A
drama of women in the villages of
Act
III
A. S. Kline © 2007 All Rights Reserved
This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Permission to perform this version of the play, on stage or film, by amateur or professional companies, and for commercial purposes, should be requested from the translator,
(Four white walls, bathed in pale
blue light, in the internal courtyard of Bernarda’s house. It is night. The
setting should be utterly simple. The doorways, illuminated by interior
lighting, cast a bright glow on the stage. In the centre a
table with an oil lamp, at which Bernarda and her daughters are eating.
La Poncia is serving them. Prudencia
is seated apart. As the curtain rises there is a complete silence, broken only
by the sound of plates and cutlery. )
PRUDENCIA: I should go. It’s been a long visit. (She rises.)
BERNARDA: Stay. We never see each other.
PRUDENCIA: Has the last bell for the rosary sounded?
LA PONCIA: Not yet.
(Prudencia sits down.)
BERNARDA: And how is your husband?
PRUDENCIA: The same.
BERNARDA: We never see him either.
PRUDENCIA: You know what he’s like. Since he quarrelled
with his brothers over the inheritance he never goes out the front door, he
uses a ladder and climbs over the wall by the stable-yard.
BERNARDA: So like a man. And your daughter…?
PRUDENCIA: He hasn’t forgiven her.
BERNARDA: He’s right.
PRUDENCIA: I don’t know what to say. It makes me suffer.
BERNARDA: A disobedient daughter ceases to be your
daughter and instead becomes your enemy.
PRUDENCIA: I let it flow over me. The only comfort I
have is to take refuge in the church, but now I’m losing my sight I’ll have to
stop going so the children won’t mock at me. (A heavy blow against the wall is heard.) What was that?
BERNARDA: The stallion, he’s shut in, and kicks at the
wall. (Calling out) Hobble him, and
let him out in the yard! (In a lower
voice) He must be hot.
PRUDENCIA: Are you going to let him loose on the new
mares?
BERNARDA: At dawn.
PRUDENCIA: You’ve done well to increase your stable.
BERNARDA: By dint of pain and money.
LA PONCIA: (Interrupting)
And now she’s got the best stable in the region! It’s
a shame prices are so low.
BERNARDA: Would you like some honey and cheese?
PRUDENCIA: I don’t feel like eating.
(Another blow is heard.)
LA PONCIA: Dear God!
PRUDENCIA: That went straight to my heart!
BERNARDA: (Rising
angrily) Do I have to say everything twice? Let
him out to roll in the straw! (She
pauses, and as if speaking to the stable lads) Shut the mares in the stable,
but let him out, before he brings the wall down. (She goes back to the table and sits down) Ay, what a life!
PRUDENCIA: You have to do a man’s work.
BERNARDA: That’s right. (Adela gets up from the table) Where are you going?
ADELA: For a drink of water.
BERNARDA: (Calling)
Bring a jug of fresh water. (To Adela) You can sit down. (Adela sits)
PRUDENCIA: And Angustias, when does she get married?
BERNARDA: They’ll ask for her hand in three days time.
PRUDENCIA: You must be very happy!
ANGUSTIAS: Of course!
AMELIA: (To
PRUDENCIA: It always brings bad luck.
BERNARDA: Enough of that!
PRUDENCIA: (To
Angustias) Has he given you the ring yet?
ANGUSTIAS: (Displaying
it) See for yourself.
PRUDENCIA: It’s beautiful. Three pearls. In my day
pearls signified tears.
ANGUSTIAS: Well times have changed.
ADELA: I don’t think so. Such things mean the same.
An engagement ring should be set with diamonds.
PRUDENCIA: That’s more appropriate.
BERNARDA: With pearls or without them, it’s what you
make of things.
MARTIRIO: Or what God makes of them.
PRUDENCIA: They tell me your furniture is fine too.
BERNARDA: It’s cost me a small fortune.
LA PONCIA: (Intervening)
The best piece is the wardrobe, with a mirror.
PRUDENCIA: I’ve never seen a wardrobe with a mirror.
BERNARDA: All we had was a chest.
PRUDENCIA: What’s important is that everything works out
for the best.
ADELA: One can never tell.
BERNARDA: There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.
(The distant sound of bells is
heard.)
PRUDENCIA: The last call. (To Angustias) I’ll visit again so you can
show me your trousseau.
ANGUSTIAS: Whenever you wish.
PRUDENCIA: God give us goodnight.
BERNARDA: Goodbye, Prudencia.
THE FIVE
DAUGHTERS: God go with you.
(Pause. Prudencia exits.)
BERNARDA: We’ve finished. (They rise.)
ADELA: I’m going to the main door to stretch my legs
and get some air.
(
AMELIA: I’ll go with you.
MARTIRIO: And I.
ADELA: (With
suppressed hatred) I won’t get lost.
AMELIA: Darkness begs company.
(They leave. Bernarda sits.
Angustias is clearing the table.)
BERNARDA: I’ve told you, I want you to talk to your
sister Martirio. What happened with the photograph was a joke and should be
forgotten.
ANGUSTIAS: You know she doesn’t like me.
BERNARDA: Each sees into their own heart. I never pry
into hearts, but I desire a united front and family harmony. Do you understand?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes.
BERNARDA: Then that’s fine.
ANGUSTIAS: Not soon enough.
BERNARDA: What time did you finish talking last night?
ANGUSTIAS: Twelve-thirty.
BERNARDA: What does Pepe have
to say?
ANGUSTIAS: He seems distracted. He talks to me as if
he’s thinking of something else. If I ask him what’s on his mind, he just says:
‘We men have our own worries.’
BERNARDA: You shouldn’t ask him; that’s even more true when you’re married. Speak if he speaks, and look
at him when he looks at you. You’ll be better off that way.
ANGUSTIAS: Mother, I think he hides a great deal from
me.
BERNARDA: Don’t try and find out what it is, don’t
question him, and, above all, don’t let him ever see you cry.
ANGUSTIAS: I should be happy and I’m not.
BERNARDA: It’s no matter.
ANGUSTIAS: I often gaze at Pepe
through the bars of the window, and his image is blurred, as if he were cloaked
in a shroud of dust thrown up by his sheep.
BERNARDA: You’re not well, that’s all.
ANGUSTIAS: I hope it’s that!
BERNARDA: Is he here tonight?
ANGUSTIAS: No. He’s gone to the city with his mother.
BERNARDA: Then we’ll retire early.
ANGUSTIAS: She’s asleep.
(Adela, Martirio and
Amelia enter.)
AMELIA: What a dark night!
ADELA: You can’t see two feet in front of you.
MARTIRIO: A fine night for thieves, or for someone who
needs to hide.
ADELA: The stallion was in the centre of the yard.
So white! Twice as big, and filling the darkness.
AMELIA: That’s right. He was frightening. Like a phantom!
ADELA: The sky is filled with fistfuls of stars.
MARTIRIO: She stared at them so hard she almost
strained her neck.
ADELA: Don’t you love them too?
MARTIRIO: What happens above the rooftops means nothing
to me. What goes on inside these four walls is enough for me.
ADELA: That’s typical.
BERNARDA: She has her ways as you have yours.
ANGUSTIAS: Good night.
ADELA: You’re off to bed already?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes, Pepe’s not
here tonight. (She exits.)
ADELA: Mother, when a meteor passes, or there’s a
flash of lightning, why do people say:
Blessed
in the sky with paper
you’re writ, and holy water?
BERNARDA: In past days they knew many things that we’ve
forgotten.
AMELIA: I shut my eyes so as not to see them.
ADELA: I don’t. I like to see things flash out fire
that have been dormant for years and years.
MARTIRIO: Those things have nothing to do with us.
BERNARDA: And it’s best not to think of them.
ADELA: What a beautiful night! I’d like to stay up
late to catch the breeze from the fields.
BERNARDA: But it’s time for bed.
AMELIA: She’s fast asleep.
BERNARDA:
BERNARDA: It’s time for bed!
AMELIA: Good night. (She exits.)
BERNARDA: You two, go on now.
MARTIRIO: Why isn’t Angustias’
fiancé coming by tonight?
BERNARDA: He’s away.
MARTIRIO: (Looking
at Adela) Ah!
ADELA: Till the morning. (She exits)
(Martirio has a drink of water and exits slowly
looking towards the door of the stable-yard. La Poncia
enters.)
LA PONCIA: You’re still here?
BERNARDA: Enjoying the silence and unable to understand
what this ‘serious thing’ is that’s supposed to be going on here.
LA PONCIA: Bernarda, forget
about it.
BERNARDA: Everything is as it should be in this house.
My vigilance guards against all.
LA PONCIA: Nothing you can see, that’s true. You
daughters live as though they were shut in a cupboard. But neither you nor
anyone else can see inside someone’s heart.
BERNARDA: My daughters can breathe tranquility.
LA PONCIA: That matters to you because you’re their
mother. I’ve enough to do looking after this house.
BERNARDA: So you’re saying nothing.
LA PONCIA: I keep to my place, in peace.
BERNARDA: The fact is there’s nothing to say. If there
was grass here you’d be the first to let the neighbours’ sheep in to graze.
LA PONCIA: I conceal more than you think.
BERNARDA: Has your son seen Pepe
here again at four in the morning? Are people still repeating a litany of lies
against this house?
LA PONCIA: No one says a thing.
BERNARDA: Because they can’t, because there’s nothing
for them to sink their teeth into. My vigilance has seen to that!
LA PONCIA: I don’t want to say anything, Bernarda, because I don’t know what you’re after. But don’t
be so certain.
BERNARDA: I’m utterly certain!
LA PONCIA: Perhaps a lightning bolt will suddenly strike
you! Perhaps a blood clot will suddenly block your heart!
BERNARDA: Nothing will happen. I’m alert to all your
suspicions.
LA PONCIA: All the better for
you then.
BERNARDA: Certainly!
SERVANT: (Entering)
I’ve finished washing the dishes. Do you need anything else, Bernarda?
BERNARDA: (Rising)
Nothing. I’m going to bed.
LA PONCIA: What time do you want me to call you?
BERNARDA: Don’t bother. I’ll sleep well tonight. (She exits.)
LA PONCIA: When you can’t fight the tide, the easiest
thing is to turn your back on it.
SERVANT: She’s so full of pride she has a mote in her
eye.
LA PONCIA: I can’t do anything about it. I want to stop
things before they go any further, but they frighten me too much. You hear this
silence? Yet there are storms brewing in each of these rooms. The day they
break out they’ll sweep us all away. I’ve had my say.
SERVANT: Bernarda thinks no
one can match her, but she doesn’t know the effect a man can have on a house full
of single women.
LA PONCIA: It’s not all Pepe
el Romano’s fault. It’s true that last year he was after Adela,
and she was mad about him, but she should have kept to herself and not incited
him. A man is a man,
SERVANT: Some say he’s been talking with Adela too often at night.
LA PONCIA: They’re right. (Whispering) And there have been other things.
SERVANT: I don’t know what will happen here.
LA PONCIA: I’d like to cross the water and leave this
warring house.
SERVANT: Bernarda is
hastening the wedding on, and maybe nothing will happen.
LA PONCIA: Things have already gone too far. Adela is determined, while the others keep watch on her all
the time.
SERVANT: Martirio too?
LA PONCIA: She’s the worst. She’s a poisonous well. She
knows Pepe is not for her and she’d drown the world
if she could so no one else should have him.
SERVANT: They’re wicked girls!
LA PONCIA: They’re women without a man that’s all. In
such cases even blood ties are forgotten. Shhh! (She listens)
SERVANT: What is it?
LA PONCIA: (Rising)
The dogs are barking.
SERVANT: Someone must have passed the door.
(Adela enters in white bodice and petticoat.)
LA PONCIA: Haven’t you been to bed?
ADELA: I wanted a drink of water. (She drinks from a glass on the table.)
LA PONCIA: I thought you were asleep.
ADELA: I was thirsty. And you two: aren’t you going
to bed?
SERVANT: Shortly.
(Adela leaves.)
LA PONCIA: Let’s be gone.
SERVANT: We’ve earned our sleep. All day, Bernarda never lets me rest.
LA PONCIA: Bring the lamp.
SERVANT: The dogs are barking like mad things.
LA PONCIA: They’ll stop us sleeping.
(They leave. The stage is almost
dark. María Josefa enters
carrying a lamb in her arms.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: Little
lamb, my little one,
we’ll go, down to the sea.
The
little ant shall open his door,
I
shall give you milk and more.
Bernarda,
leopard-face.
she-hyena.
Little
lamb!
Baa,
baa.
Flowers
there’ll be at Bethlehem Gate.
(She laughs.)
You
and I don’t want to sleep.
By
itself the door will open
we’ll hide along the shore
deep inside a reef of coral.
Bernarda,
Leopard-face.
she-hyena.
Baa,
baa.
Flowers
there’ll be at Bethlehem Gate.
(She goes out singing. Adela enters. She looks around her carefully, and vanishes
through the door to the stable-yard. Martirio enters
through another door and stands centre-stage in a state of agonised alertness.
She is also in her petticoat. She has covered herself with a waist-length black
shawl. María Josefa enters.)
MARTIRIO: Grandmother, where do you think you’re going?
MARÍA JOSEFA: Are you going to open the door for me? Who
are you?
MARTIRIO: What are you doing here?
MARÍA JOSEFA: I escaped. Who are you?
MARTIRIO: Go to bed.
MARÍA JOSEFA: You’re Martirio, I
see that now. Martirio: with the face of a martyr.
When are you going to have a child? This is mine.
MARTIRIO: Where did you find the lamb?
MARÍA JOSEFA: I know it’s a lamb, but why shouldn’t a lamb
be a child? It’s better to have a lamb than nothing at all. Bernarda
with a leopard’s face:
MARTIRIO: Don’t raise your voice.
MARÍA JOSEFA: True. It’s all quite dark. Because I’ve white
hair you think I can’t have a child, but I can: children, children, and more
children. This child will be clothed in white, and there’ll be another child
and another and they’ll all be snow-white, and we’ll be like the waves, every
one of us. Then we’ll know everything, and our heads will be white, and we’ll
be sea-foam. Why is there no sea-foam here? Here there are only mourning
shawls.
MARTIRIO: Hush, hush.
MARÍA JOSEFA: When my neighbour had a child, I would take it
chocolate and afterwards she would bring me some, and so it was, always,
always, always. You’ll have white hair, but the neighbours won’t visit you. I
want to take a walk but I’m afraid the dogs will bite me. Will you go with me
till we’re past the fields? I don’t like fields. I like houses, but houses that
are wide open, and the women, our neighbours, sleeping in their beds with their
little children, and their men outside sitting on chairs. Pepe
el Romano is an ogre. All of you want him. But he’ll devour you. Because you’re grains of wheat. No, not grains of wheat. Tongue-less
frogs!
MARTIRIO: (Energetically)
Come, you must go to bed. (She pushes at
her.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: Yes, but you’ll let me out later, won’t you?
MARTIRIO: Of course I will.
MARÍA JOSEFA: (Weeping) Little lamb, my
little one,
we’ll go, down to the sea.
The
little ant shall open his door,
I
shall give you milk and more.
(She exits. Martirio
shuts the door through which she has gone, and moves towards the door to the
stable yard. She hesitates then advances a few more steps.)
MARTIRIO: (Whispering)
Adela. (Pause. She continues
to the door. Loudly) Adela!
(Adela appears. Her hair is tousled.)
ADELA: Why are you calling me?
MARTIRIO: Leave that man alone!
ADELA: Who are you to speak to me like that?
MARTIRIO: It’s not the role of an honest woman.
ADELA: Wouldn’t you love to be there yourself!
MARTIRIO: (Loudly)
It’s time for me to speak out. This can’t go on.
ADELA: It’s only just beginning. I’ve had the
courage to take what I want. The spirit and power you lack. I’ve felt death
beneath this roof and I’m off to seek what is mine, what belongs to me.
MARTIRIO: That man without a soul came here for another
woman. You intercepted him.
ADELA: He came for the money, but his eyes were on
me all the time.
MARTIRIO: I won’t allow you to take him. He’s to marry Angustias.
ADELA: You know as well as I he doesn’t love her.
MARTIRIO: I know.
ADELA: You know, because you’ve seen: he loves me.
MARTIRIO: (Desperately)
Yes.
ADELA: (Coming
closer) He loves me, he loves me.
MARTIRIO: Stick a knife in me, if that’s what you wish,
but don’t speak those words again.
ADELA: That’s why you don’t want me to see him. You
don’t care if he embraces someone he doesn’t love. Nor do I.
He can live with Angustias for a hundred years. But
it’s him embracing me that’s so terrible for you,
because you love him, you love him too!
MARTIRIO: (Dramatically)
Yes! I can say it without shame. Yes! Let my bitter heart split open like a
pomegranate. I love him!
ADELA: (Impulsively,
moving to embrace her) Martirio, Martirio, it’s not my fault.
MARTIRIO: Don’t touch me! Don’t try to soften my heart.
My blood is no longer like yours, and even if I wish to see you as a sister now
I only see you as the other woman. (She
pushes her away)
ADELA: There’s no remedy here. Whoever must drown
will drown. Pepe el Romano is mine. He will take me
to the rushes by the shore.
MARTIRIO: He will not!
ADELA: I can’t stand the horror of living under this
roof having tasted the sweetness of his mouth. I’ll be whatever he wants me to
be. With the whole village against me; scorched by their tongues of fire,
hounded by those who call themselves decent people, I’ll stand before them all
with a crown of thorns on my brow, the one that a woman loved by a married man
wears.
MARTIRIO: Be silent!
ADELA: Yes, yes. (Quietly) Let’s go to sleep, let him marry Angustias.
I don’t care. I’ll go and live in a little house all by myself, where he can
see me whenever he wants, when need overcomes him.
MARTIRIO: That won’t happen as long as I’ve a drop of
blood in my veins.
ADELA: Not to you, who are weak: but I can bring a
wild stallion to its knees by lifting my little finger.
MARTIRIO: Don’t raise your voice, it disturbs me. My heart
is gripped by so evil a force that, regardless of my wishes, it’s smothering me.
ADELA: They tell us to love our sisters. God must have
abandoned me, in the midst of darkness, because I see you more clearly than
ever before.
(The sound of someone whistling is
heard and Adela runs to the door, but Martirio blocks her passage.)
MARTIRIO: Where are you off to?
ADELA: Get away from the door!
MARTIRIO: Push past me if you can!
ADELA: Away!
(They struggle.)
MARTIRIO: (Shouting)
Mother! Mother!
ADELA: Let me go!
(Bernarda appears. She is wearing petticoats and a
black shawl.)
BERNARDA: Quiet. Quiet. A pity I haven’t a lightning
bolt in my hand!
MARTIRIO: (Pointing
at Adela) She was with
him! Look at her petticoat covered with straw!
BERNARDA: A bed of straw is the bed of a whore! (She approaches Adela
angrily.)
ADELA: (Confronting
her) That’s enough of your gaoler’s voice! (She takes hold of her mother’s walking stick
and breaks it in half.) That’s how I treat the tyrant’s rod. Don’t take
another step. No one but Pepe can command me!
(
(La Poncia
and Angustias enter.)
ADELA: I’m his woman. (To Angustias) Listen, go into the yard
and tell him so. He’ll rule this whole household. He’s there now, breathing
like a lion.
ANGUSTIAS: Dear God!
BERNARDA: The shotgun! Where’s the shotgun? (She exits in haste)
(Amelia enters