Diamond in the rough

10 April 2012

Here's a diamond in the rough. In the soulless, subterranean studio of the Theatre Museum Stephen Dykes's muscular, atmospheric reworking of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba beautifully rebottles the original's drama of unnatural confinement for an evening that rivals the starrier houses roundabout.

Dykes relocates Lorca in the American Deep South. Lilian Beckman is the new stick-wielding matriarch who keeps her five daughters locked away, here out of perverted Protestant principle rather than Iberian superstition. Hollie Garrett plays her with fearsome steel.

Under her sway, the five young actresses playing the daughters combine in an ensemble performance quietly buzzing with the friction of female rivalry. As Agnes preens herself for her wedding to the never-seen beautiful boy Hernandez, Polly Henson's Adele moons with the knowing grace of a girl whose thoughts are of night-time.

The others circle fascinated, intuiting the disastrous truth even as they hope to avoid it.

The production simmers better than it boils. The actresses' naivete and some hackneyed direction rear their heads when the emotion is really let rip. The Southern accent, too, is not dealt with uniformly well.

Some notable imperfections then, but only these prevent Homestead from being a fully polished Fringe gem.

. Until 15 October (0870 163 0717).

Homestead
Courtyard Theatre At Covent Garden
Wellington Street, WC2E 7PA

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in