Yerma

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

"Everything fits into this adaptation and tragic Lorca lullaby about female repression. The successful and restrained staging, whose panoptic gaze of the public reinforces that inquisitive atmosphere in the intimate and elegant scenery of Frederic Amat; the musical production of Raül Refree, who uses the voices of the actors and the sounds they produce live with objects to build that oppressive lament of female essentialism; and a shining cast, intertwined from beginning to end, to attend to the tear of a María Hervás surrendered to that rebellious Yerma, that feels "vacía pero llena de odio" [empty but full of hatred]. (...) It is confirmed in its Lorca premiere as one of the most committed and refreshing actors in the current scene. (...) Against the naïve rural’s bucolism, (...) this Yerma by the Lliure proves why a text written ninety years ago is a symbol against the chains of the genre. (...) At a time when the essentialist and biological debate encloses feminism in a small world (...) the production of the Lliure is presented as a tragically liberating song. Like that " marchita, marchita pero segura " [withered, withered but sure] that Hervás sings for public relief despite what has just been contemplated on stage: a heartbreaking catharsis."
Jacinto Antón – El País

"In Yerma absolute honesty and the will to live coexist. In Yerma there is no resignation but struggle, there is no acceptance but demand, there is no renunciation but the anger with which it will immolate itself in a gesture of revolutionary nihilism. [...] In the Yerma de María Hervás (...) all these feelings, all these oppositions spring with force and forcefulness to give us a powerful and cathartic creation based on naturalness and vital drive, very well guided by its director, Juan Carlos Martel. [...] Martel’s staging is very interesting, deeply respectful of the original to the smallest detail, but rejecting dramatisms of other times and any spark of folklorism. An excellent direction of the performers, with a clear diction and a climatic treatment of the sound space flooded by songs as if it were a long lullaby. We must approach Lorca from time to time."
Santi Fondevila - Ara

"The Yerma directed by Juan Carlos Martel Bayod brings a new look at the tragedy of the granadian author. [...] María Hervás is a sharp Yerma that increases the trauma of the infertility with tonal inflections that culminate in the throaty tear of despair. His restlessness has reminded us of the Lorca incarnations of Núria Espert, since in 1971 he starred in the transgressive version of Víctor García. The cast acts well together with Joan Amargós in the role of Juan, that husband more concerned with counting sheep and cultivating fields than in putting his seed in that wife whom he intends to confine in his house. Isabel Rocatti also shines as the old woman with extensive offspring whom Yerma asks for advice. [...] It is difficult to surprise with such a well-known work, but the Yerma of Martel Bayod and Amat is represented in another way: its timeless vocation does not betray the essence of García Lorca."
Sergi Doria - ABC

"Despite the impressive list of names that make up the artistic and technical team, the proposal is not at all ostentatious, on the contrary: it is a firm commitment to an artisanal, intimate and austere theater. (...) Maria Hervás composes a tragic character from beginning to end. (...) She conveys well the obsession and the stubbornness: the bitterness and the hardness are manifested already from the beginning, with a cadence one point abrupt and that, at times, would seem more appropriate of a post dramatic bet. She moves in the final stretch, when it manifests all full of hatred and gall towards those who want she barren and limited. (...) The beauty of the lorquian word is imposed in all the pictures; it appears enhanced in the good news of the neighbor -with happy trot, Camila Viyuela interprets this humble woman who will have a son fruit of love (...), and also in the vital proclamation of the pagan old -powerful Isabel Roccati. (...) The oppression of the environment is manifested in the recriminations of the husband -an effective Joan Amargós, who wants Yerma locked up at home, and in the murmurings of the neighbors. (..) The scenic of the washerwomen which gossip runs like water is one of the most achieved coral moments. (...) A brighting Yolanda Sey (...) leads the charge against Yerma. (...) With the carnal and wild performance that has choreographed Lali Ayguadé (...) David Menéndez and Bàrbara Mestanza are powerfully spared. (...) The Yerma de Martel is an organic and beautiful show that must to be seen."
Ana Prieto - Núvol

"This Yerma is full of ghosts, it is pure intra history of the Lliure, a reunion with the family demons. And the result is brave but irregular, with great successes and some slip. The first success is the scenography of Frederic Amat, a mountain of Venus covered with ash, visual metaphor of the infertility of the protagonist. A lunar landscape wrapped in draperies with four bands. A camera and abstract Yerma, deconstruction of the "chocita en el campo" [small hut in the countryside] that sings the lullaby of the first painting, reduction of the Spanish rurality to a gloomy conceptual metaphor. Working with Amat has undoubtedly been Martel’s wisest decision in this montage. The veteran visual artist, who already collaborated in the 1980s with Pasqual and Puigserver in the scenography of El público [The Audience], brings substance and personality to the show, projecting Lorca into the 21st century without the need for large digital shuttles. (...) In modern times, a screenless Yerma is a virtuous vow of post-dramatic chastity. The second success is music. Martel interprets Yerma as a lullaby, something rare, although it responds exactly to the poet’s instructions. (...) To make it (...) disrupt at the beginning any realistic temptation, helping the public to accept the verse and the most elaborate metaphors of this implausible deep Spain. (...) Music and poetry form an effective tandem (...). And Martel (...)redoubles his bet with Raül Refree’s a cappella compositions. Ironically, this Lorca surprises by being strictly lorquian."
Gabriel Sevilla – Recomana.cat

"The Teatre Lliure's Yerma is organic, it removes all the senses, and María Hervás has absorbed it with all her strength to expel it out like darts thrown into the auditorium in such a sensitive and heartbreaking performance. But she is not alone. The actress Isabel Rocatti marks the stamp with the character of the Vieja who is outside the social convention. The actor Joan Amargós is the shepherd husband who imposes the social law on Yerma. David Menéndez, the friend and the male (two characters) creates with the actress Bàrbara Mestanza (The Mamzelles) in the rol of the female one of the most daring scenes of the montage but also more esoteric and loaded with the intoxicated effluvium of the pilgrimage. And actresses Yolanda Sey (The Sey Sisters) and Camila Viyuela, the friend, round off a cast that excels together and rises individually in each of their actions. [...] Yerma is a spectacle for faithful spectators of always, but also for new teenage spectators who, I am sure, will come out of it with a new idea of what they had of the theater before entering it. The message of Yerma is still alive and, however much the world turns, it gives the impression that it will never cease to be one of the concerns that stings humanity."
Andreu Sotorra - Clip de teatre



Yerma at the MAE
Yerma at the Europeana
"Las nanas infantiles", by Federico García Lorca (1928)
La Barraca, el teatro del pueblo de Federico García Lorca