by Mike Hoban
‘Yerma’ – Conceived by Melinda Lopez and Melia Bensussen, Adapted and Translated by Melinda Lopez, based on the play by Federico Garcia Lorca. Directed by Melia Bensussen; Scenic Design by Cameron Anderson; Costume Design by Olivera Gajic; Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal; Sound Design by Brendan F. Doyle & Mark Bennett; Original Music by Mark Bennett; Music Direction by Jesse Sanchez; Choreography by Misha Shields. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through June 30
Right from the outset of Yerma, the absorbing and surrealistic adaptation/translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1934 work by Boston playwright Melinda Lopez, there are subtle hints that, despite appearances, there may be trouble on the horizon for the marriage of the title character and her husband Juan. But that foreshadowing is unlikely to prepare us for the path that this strange and poetic story will take, as it morphs into an unsettling tale of obsession and eventually, madness. The Huntington Theatre Company is presenting this world premiere play with music at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Calderwood Pavilion through June 30th.
As the play opens, the couple is passionately making love at the break of dawn, and soon after, Yerma (Nadine Malouf) reveals to her husband that she may be pregnant, as she is uncharacteristically “late”. While Juan (Christian Barillas) expresses joy, it is clear that his thoughts are much more focused on running his business, and we also get a glimpse into his controlling and mistrustful nature. But as in any doomed marriage, it takes two to tango, and when Yerma (which means ‘barren’ in Spanish) miscarries, and the couple fails at further attempts to conceive (for reasons that are intentionally unclear), her need to have a child to feel whole in a rural village in 1930’s Spain begins to consume her every waking moment.
It doesn’t help that her close friend Maria (a radiant Marianna Bassham) is a veritable baby machine, who tells Yerma of the women in her family, “A man looks at us, and … Boom boom boom (we’re pregnant).” In an effort to comfort her friend, Maria reminds Yerma that motherhood is not always the blissful experience that she imagines it to be, and that she would have liked to attend school, travel or spend more alone time with her husband before motherhood. And when she adds that there is some suffering involved in raising children, Yerma snaps, “That’s a lie. That’s what the weak mothers say, the complainers,” and we begin to see the toll that her preoccupation with having a child is taking on her.
As Juan becomes increasingly fixated on his business and simultaneously domineering in the marriage, Yerma becomes desperate for a solution. She encounters a wise older woman, Incarnacion (a slyly comic Alma Cuervo) who tells her that the inability to conceive lies with the lack of passion between Yerma and Juan, and suggests that she “take a lover that looks like him” to get pregnant. Yerma is taken aback, convinced that her “honor” would prevent her from doing so, but when we see her interacting with her husband’s friend, the hunky Victor (Ernie Pruneda), it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility, and there’s spark of hope that Yerma’s dream could possibly come true.
To say any more about the plot would be giving away too much, but this play is a well-constructed tragedy of the first order. It’s one of Lorca’s least produced works (with Blood Wedding and The House of Bernada Alba being his most well-known) and Lopez has wisely modernized the language in her translation, while leaving much of Lorca’s poetic narrative intact. At times the dialogue sounded a bit stagey to me, more like a poetry reading than natural human interaction, but my companion was completely captivated by the rhythm of the language, so that may be a matter of taste.
The flamenco-inspired music provided by guitarist Juanito Pascual and percussionist Fabio Pirozzolo and sung by the entire cast is often beautiful, sometimes haunting, and adds depth to the complex narrative. The performances across the board are first rate, beginning with Malouf in the role of Yerma, who brings an otherworldly presence to the role. When Victor says to her, “What a strange girl you are…not like anyone else,” we can only nod in agreement. Barillas brings a ferocious intensity to his performance as Juan, particularly as his failure to control his wife becomes more evident and his jealousy intensifies. Bassham, Cuervo, and Pruneda, as well as Evelyn Howe (in a comically charged turn) and Alexandra Illescas provide terrific support. Scenic designer Cameron Anderson creates a simple but lovely set, with the couple’s bed at the center and the entire stage covered in yellow flowers, which decrease in number as the years without a child pile up.
Despite its ultimately tragic nature, Lopez’ Yerma is an imaginative work of art with a haunted soul. See it. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2018-2019/yerma/
