Drama by Federico Garcia Lorca
Translation: Cicerone Theodorescu

Artistic director: Irina Popescu-Boieru
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Incidental music: Eusebio Apostolache
Choreography: Gitta T. Săteanu
Premiere date: March 7, 1996

In an Andalusian village in the 1930s, the wealthiest woman in the community, Bernarda, loses her husband and enters the eight-year mourning period required by the tradition she religiously respects. The house thus becomes a tomb of silence for Bernarda, for the five daughters who see their youth killed, for Bernarda's mother, for the governess and the maid. Following Bernarda's despotic decisions, the women will live behind walls and drawn shutters, and will only go out to go to church, covered by black veils. Subject to ruthless conventions, the young girls live in a state of perpetual unfulfillment, in which resentments, repressed desires, hatred and frustration accumulate.

The approach of the most handsome young man in the village, Pepe Romano, to the eldest and youngest daughters causes drama in this universe of captivity: the object of desire of all these lonely women, Pepe asks Angustias to be his wife and receives permission to speak to her in the evening, in front of the bars of the window. Once this duty is fulfilled, hidden in the darkness of the courtyard, he meets Adela, the youngest of the family, beautiful and full of vitalistic enthusiasm. Pursued by the maid and jealous sisters, Adela sees her secret revealed to the family. To avoid scandal, Bernarda banishes Pepe from the village, and Adela, believing her lover dead, ends up committing suicide. Through her death, Adela determines the coalition of all those who had not dared to confront the tyrannical mother until then. Thus, unlike the Spanish dramatic text, the Oradea performance gives Adela's sacrifice a positive symbolic value: the promise of freedom.

Distribution:

Bernarda:  Mariana Vasile
Maria Josepha:  Ileana Iurciuc
At Poncia:  Mariana Neagu
Anguish:  Joanna Blaga 
Magdalena:  Mariana Presecan
Amelia:  Monalisa Basarab
Martyr:  Roxana Ivanciu
Adela:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Prudence:  Simona Constantinescu
The maid:  Andra Tudor
Girl:  Loredana Iuga
A woman:  Ofelia Fîrte

Technical director: Eugenia Popa
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Vasile Blejan, Iosif Balogh, Laviniu Goron
Sound: Sorin Domide