Yerma by F G Lorca
Adaptation by Anthony Weigh
Gate Theatre
Written for Exeunt
Anthony Weigh’s adaptation of Lorca’s 1934 tragic poem ‘in three acts and three scenes’ is a daring one; it embodies and recreates the distinct social politic of this forgotten rural land, shifting the focus of the play from a critique of rural social norms to a more general reflection on isolation and ignorance.
Weigh removes the distinct social context of rural Spain that dominates Lorca’s original, as well as its most theatrical of elements, the chorus. Yet by doing so, this production, directed by Natalie Abrahami, becomes a contemporary portrait of folk culture and its inherent connection with the Earth; the rituals and values that are grounded in this barren and desolate reality are portrayed with complexity and never dismissed as primitive.
After several summers with her new husband, Yerma has still not fallen pregnant and this is viewed not just as a failure but as an act of transgression. The question of Yerma’s childlessness is articulated via a landscape of natural symbols: a desert of slow torture that is highly evocative and temperate at the same time. Yerma is surrounded by prejudice and the subject of superstition; she had been denied a natural process, and that rejection creates a break with reality.
Designer Ruth Sutcliffe has lined the stage with sand, wood and metal; we see women pissing in buckets, meat being butchered; we hear of life in the fields and see constant images of virility and fertility. No matter how well her husband Juan provides for Yerma, building their house from scratch, we only see it as a barren room that serves as her prison. This clarity and focus create an atmosphere of desolation: an entirely psychological space. Weigh’s adaptation posits the question of remoteness and the breeding of ignorance through an almost clinical focus on Yerma.
The production also concentrates more keenly on the characters’ backstories, particularly Juan’s. There is a suggested past homosexual connection between Juan and butcher Victor, to whom Yerma is also attracted. He wants only a simple life with a devoted wife; she wants a child. There’s a formal autonomy created in the play which means that, despite the introduction of such narrative possibilities, Yerma’s life grows more and more empty and arduous over time.
Despite the abiding sense of aridity, there’s plenty of life and atmosphere in this production; Yerma’s neighbour and friend, the oft-pregnant Maria, is played with energy by Alison O’Donnell as a counterpoint to Yerma. Maria is humorous and abundantly fertile yet she comes to be equally isolated. In contrast, particularly in the early moments of the play, Yerma is played with a dangerous naivety by Ty Glaser, yet this is something she builds on and ultimately deconstructs. There’s an economy of emotion in both the characters of Yerma and Juan, played with restraint by Hasan Dixon, which at times feels underwhelming, but in the end makes for high-impact theatre.
This is a production that focusses more on narrative and dramatic trajectory, than on the development of the characters. This creates some problematic and uneven scenes, and sometimes the writing struggles in communicating the emotion behind the events. However, the use of symbols proves a powerful device. There are some highly engaging scenes. Weigh’s Yerma toys with Lorca’s classic in a quest to understand and explore its values. Its potency lies in its critical relationship to the original text, but also in the complexity of its loyalty, maintaining the essential elements of the play – such as the earth imagery- and combining them with a slightly altered narrative in order to construct a modern parable. We not only experience Yerma’s slow torture, but we begin to understand it, and this theatrical articulation is commendable.
Tagged: Anthony Weigh, Exeunt, Frederico Garica Lorca, Gate Theatre