Bernarda Alba
by Trajal Harrell / Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble
Adapted from the play by Federico García Lorca
Staging and Choreography: Trajal Harrell
Zürich-Premiere: 9. September 2022
Shortly before the Second World War, Federico García Lorca writes the play The House of Bernarda Alba, in which a family of grieving women is left hopelessly at the mercy of their repressed desires. Now, Trajal Harrell leads these women to the door of two “houses”. He leads them to the lavish fashion houses of Paris, the “maisons” of Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga and other great couture designers. He also introduces them to the dazzling “houses” of voguing – like the House of Xtravaganza, the House of Ebony and the House of Ninja – sites of community since the 1970s for mostly queer and often Latinx and African American dancers since that have used style and pride to challenge exclusion and injustice. In Harrell’s house on the Pfauen-Stage, the houses of high culture and subculture will meet to experience their confluence in, as with his earlier works, the deep emotion of butoh.
To be seen in two versions: The Hour and The Bomb.
The bomb is harrell’s distillation of the destruction at the heart of Lorca’s play. Set to Giya Kanchelli’s unmistakeable “time and again,” the three together- lorca, kanchelli, and harrell with nine outstanding performers- create a unique enchantment for the eyes, ears, and visceral senses- a not so subtle attack in butoh style.
© Leon Schwitter