The House of Bernarda Alba

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

Federico García Lorca's extraordinarily powerful drama, the last he wrote before his assassination, explores the darkness at the heart of repression.

When Bernarda's husband dies, she locks all the doors and windows. She tells her grown-up daughters to sew and be silent. 'There are eight years of mourning ahead of us. While it lasts not even the wind will get into this house.' But locks can't hold back the growing tide of desire.

This English version of The House of Bernarda Alba, published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Jo Clifford, and also contains a chronology and suggestions for further reading.



Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca, known as Federico García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director.

Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. His major plays include Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba

He was executed by Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Jo Clifford (formerly known as John Clifford) is an award-winning playwright, translator, poet and performer, who has also worked as a journalist and academic. She was instrumental in establishing the reputation of the Traverse Theatre Company in the 1980s.

She is the author of about eighty plays, many of which have been performed all over the world. They include: Losing Venice, Every One, Faust and The Tree of Knowledge. Her adaptation of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations makes her the first openly transgendered woman playwright to have had a play on in London's West End.