What imprisons the characters of Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba is the stultifying Spanish heat and an equally unrelenting brand of Catholicism. What confines the sisters in Yusra Warsama’s new play, a free adaptation of the Lorca, is the fear of urban violence and the expectations of Islam.
The switch from Andalucía to Moss Side might sound like a stretch, but in Warsama’s hands as writer and director, it makes a lot of sense. Her all-female household lives somewhere near Manchester’s Great Western Street, next door to their dress shop and within earshot of every passing man and his every misogynistic remark. Their front room, with the plastic still on the sofa and one armchair significantly empty, feels like a refuge from danger.
