College's Lorca play

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 6

College's Lorca play

By Howard McNaughton “The House of Bernards Alba.” bv Garcia Lorca. Directed by Don McAra for the Christchurch Teachers’ College Secondary Division. College Auditorium, November 26, 28. 30, December 1. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. "Not a drop of poetry! Reality! Realism!” This was Lorca’s ideal in this, the last of his great tragedies, and by the final curtain every drop of emotion has been relentlessly squeezed out of the already dehydrated Andalusian atmosphere. Such a play can only end in one way: with the imperious voice of the matriarch of the title ringing out "Silence* Silence!” The play begins with dialogue through bells tolling the death of the father; its end consolidates the protracted death of the whole household. The serious theatre-goer in Christchurch sees so little tragedv that the impact of an effective production is

very considerable. In general terms, the success of this production rests iri its avoidance of the most common pitfail in handling Lorca’s tragedies: filling out their essential spareness with embellishments of lighting, design, movement, and vocal colour. In last evening’s performance, this spareness was preserved: there was not a drop of poetry, and the expansive stucco walls of the set established a sense of , extreme starkness from the first. Movement and makeup could afford to be even more severe, but the hopeless sense of imminent family tragedy never seriously faltered. The large, all-female cast spans three generations.. The more straightforward, casting involves the unmarried daughters, all ably done here: Linda Drake as the eldest, Elizabeth Ross as Magdalena, April Hyland as Amelia, Joy Fraser as Adela, and Sheryl Pearspn 'as Martirio. In the older women, however, lies the repository of local values that generate the tragedy,

and these parts are very difficult indeed. As La Poncia, Marie Elder achieves the necessary depth of human suggestiveness, but is a little lavish in movement and breadth of accent — a valuable performance nonetheless. As the grandmother, Phillipa Hunter makes creditable work of a most elusive part, capturing both the pathos and the perceptiveness of the old woman’s insanity. Vivienne Handley, however, dominates the production splendidly in her interpretation of the title role; her first entrance is highly effective in terms of production, and her impressively strong stage presence never wavers, her tyranny coming as much through the sternness of her gait as through her voice. Lorca is a hideously difficult playwright; this production comes close enough to a clear view of his power as a tragedian to show that he is well worth all the hard work that is obviously invested in it.