"The House of Bernada Alba" by Frederico Garcia Lorca
Mountiew Academy of Theatre Arts, New Players Theatre, London/2006
Directed by Margaret Forsyth - Lighting design by Matt Prentice
SET AND COSTUMES DESIGNED BY SOPHIA LOVELL SMITH
Photographer: Rowan O'Duffy

"The House of Bernarda Alba" entombs the fate of three generations of women and their servants. The design defines the claustrophobia with vertically enclosing walls. The outside world enters only through tight apertures. Pale streaked walls are played with in the lighting design to suggest the changing colours of morning, afternoon and night.

In the costume, the carapace of black funeral lace is stripped by Act 3 to vulnerable white as the characters' desires are exposed. At the last, the play is a tragedy. Lorca consigns all ambition to the ever-present earth, from husband's funeral to daughter's sucide.