IrelandReview

Yerma – Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Reviewer: Claire Galligan

Writer: Lorca, Adapted by Patrick J. O’Reilly

Director: Patrick J. O’Reilly

The retelling of Lorca’s Yerma by Tinderbox Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, adapted by the director Patrick J. O’Reilly manages to incorporate the essential themes in the original play written in 1934: love, longing and loss. Yerma means a younger woman who is childless. Caoimhe Farren in the title role captures the heart breaking and tragic elements of a woman trapped in a childless marriage, who continues to suffer the social torment of societal expectations. The central issue is about infertility and repression of the reproductive system. Yerma seethes inwardly with violence; she is obsessed with her need to bear a child living out her personal conflict, surrounded by women friends and family played admirably by Hazel Clifford, Laura Hughes, Niamh McAllister, and Sophie Robinson, who celebrate their sexuality and sensuality in wanton abandonment throughout the play.

In the opening scene we are invited to witness a dysfunctional family christening party overflowing with drink, loud music and sexual innuendo.

A mastery of staging by the director Patrick J. O’Reilly creates variety. Clever use of a yellow car centrally positioned on the stage enables the actors to move seamlessly through each scene. Each movement by the actors exiting and entering the car propels the action forward and intensifies the inner conflict within the characters themselves.

Reality and poetic values are balanced in different ways. Firstly through costuming design by Niamh Kearney who subtly combines hints of Spanish origin in her choice of colours and headdresses worn by the women. A nosegay of flowers attached to a character’s hip enhances a slit skirt. A splash of red reminds us subconsciously of a Spanish Senorita at a bullfight. The pagan themes within the original play are reinforced through a frenzied dance around a maypole to enhance fertility. In the original play Yerma visits an ancient crone/soothsayer who prescribes herbal essences to invigorate the womb. In this production the matriarch played by Laura Hughes slips into the role of the witch through a subtle change of lighting and change of costume to reveal elements of voodoo in the shape of a black feathered headdress, chanting intonations like a high priestess with sinister motives.

Lighting design by Mary Tumelty illuminates and highlights the party atmosphere in the opening scenes and supports the action within the play, creating focus, mood and dark shadows as the characters descend into helplessness and despair.

The men in the play; Him and Himself played by Stefan Dunbar and Matthew Forsythe act defiantly, and posture aggressively towards each other, expressing the physical metaphor of the landscape aligned with their desire to propagate the territorial acquisition of their women. However neither succeed because Yerma’s hands are the instrument of death.

Lorca described his play as a lyric poem, and this adaptation O’Reilly and Tinderbox will hold you enthralled throughout.

Runs Until 3rd November 2024.

The Review's Hub Score

Enthralling

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