Teatro Goya (Madrid) was the site of the first major Spanish production of The House of Bernarda Alba, opening on 10 January 1964. Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, the staging made the house’s confinement a central theatrical fact, giving Madrid audiences a production shaped by the play’s enclosed setting and power relations.

The 1964 Production

Bardem directed the production, with designs by Antonio Saura. His notes treated the house not as a neutral interior but as a structure that progressively separates its inhabitants from the outside world. The three settings, one for each act, were to lead further into the house, making the women’s isolation deepen as the drama advanced.

The walls were to be very high, giving the rooms the effect of a well in which the characters were imprisoned. Lighting was to remain constant within each act and change only when outside light entered, as when a door opened. That limited shift made the world beyond the house perceptible while underscoring how rarely it reached the women inside.

Staging Authority and Character

Bardem’s direction also shaped the presentation of Bernarda Alba. She was conceived as the personification of authority, asserting it through her stick and cold smile, and raising her voice only at moments when that authority was threatened. Even when confronted with Adela’s body, her cry was to be brief: the staging emphasized her rapid return to control.

Poncia, by contrast, was to serve Bernarda without appearing servile. Bardem cautioned against turning her into a class stereotype or making her excessively demonstrative, favoring a restrained performance. The daughters, too, were to be individualized rather than treated as an undifferentiated group. Bardem differed from Lorca over their Act Three costumes: he proposed Martirio in black, Amelia, Angustias, and Magdalena in a mixture of black and white, and Adela entirely in white, while Bernarda would remain in black throughout.

Reception and Significance

A review in ABC the morning after the opening described the play as a powerful modern tragedy that also recalled the work of major seventeenth-century Spanish playwrights, including Lope de Vega and Calderón. The production later opened in Zaragoza, where a reviewer praised the contrast between the white walls and the women’s black costumes, Candida Losada’s controlled performance as Bernarda, and Bardem’s approach, characterized as stylized realism.

The Madrid staging established a significant production history in Spain after the play’s long delay in reaching the country’s major stages. Its design and direction made the house’s isolation legible through height, spatial progression, and restrictions on light, while its treatment of authority and the differentiated women gave performers and audiences specific ways to engage with the play’s domestic conflict.