Yerma – Lorca’s classic tale reimagined to rural Ireland with a novel staging (Tinderbox Theatre Company in Lyric Theatre until Sunday 3 November) #biaf24

Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca’s story about a childless woman living in rural Spain has been shifted to rural Ireland in Tinderbox’s exciting new production. Yerma is desperate for a child. But five years into her marriage, conception is illusive.

The women that Yerma meets in Lorca’s original text have morphed into her younger, more fertile sisters and her mammy. It all kicks off at a nephew’s christening in the parish church. The baby’s blanket symbolically unravels as Yerma’s sense of wellbeing collapses: everything gets too much and she retreats to the car park. From there, it’s a heady mix of partying, love, loss and violent retribution for holding secrets.

Tinderbox are building a reputation for reimaging and retelling plays in modern contexts. Their vibrant retelling of Eugène Ionesco Rhino in last year’s Belfast International Arts Festival wowed audiences and has been deservedly shortlisted for a UK Theatre Award.

Yerma boldly places a yellow Suzuki car (a pre-2003 Ignis) in one of two parking spaces painted out in the middle of the Lyric Naughton Studio stage, using the vehicle’s back passenger doors as the theatre’s wings, with an impossible number of characters appearing out of the back of the Tardis-like city car. Traversing locations, say from the hotel reception out into the car park, involves actors moving through the back of the car. It’s quite a funny concept at first, but the constant opening and closing of doors does wear think towards the end of the performance.

What doesn’t wear thin is the gripping performance of Caoimhe Farren as the angst-ridden Yerma. A woman who is maligned and judged by others, constantly blamed and shamed for her circumstances, while struggling to process her emotions and get to grips with her physical and mental health. Despite all this pressure being piled on top of Yerma, Farren still allows her character moments of comedy, laughing – even if it is hysterically – in the face of failure and criticism.

Niamh McAllister plays ‘Herself’, a happy-go-lucky single mum who is fighting through fatigue with her newly first born and has the most empathy for her big sister. Sophie Robinson – labelled ‘Mammy’s Favourite’ in the show’s programme which is styled as an order of service – has been busy breeding a big brood and is disappointed by and dismissive of Yerma. Hazel Clifford is the final sibling, a fine songstress who is untroubled by the lack of pockets in her dress and is endlessly pulling balloons, vapes and fertility-enhancing herbs out of her cleavage. And Mammy should not be forgotten. Laura Hughes portrays a powerhouse of a mother who can feed, mollycoddle, chastise and embolden her chicks before engaging in some dark arts as a siren-like enchantress.

The men in the show get actual names, though the script pencils their personas in much lighter detail. Yerma’s husband John (Stefan Dunbar) is a farmer, a gentle brute of a character who could be played more sympathetically at the start to allow a greater and more dramatic descent into his later hateful state of quietly immutable obstinance. Matthew Forsythe plays Victor, a mysterious man who drifts in and out of scenes, and the unrequited love of Yerma’s life.

On the surface, the play is about the pain of involuntary childlessness, but at a deeper level it also about what it’s like to be so trapped and isolated that you begin to doubt yourself. Yerma is a woman of integrity – unwilling to pursue a more charming and emotionally available man – and is as harsh on herself as her nagging sisters. In the spirit of so many playwrights throughout the ages, Lorca gleefully pushes a character’s sense of powerlessness past their breaking point, resulting in an almost inevitable Pyrrhic victory.

Tracey Lindsay’s car-centred set is bold, with the front bonnet opening up to deliver yet more surprises. Mary Tumelty’s stadium-like backlighting is complemented by a tight spotlight that brings the front seats of the car into focus, helped by changes in the texture of the soundscape and micing inside the car interior that directs the audience’s attention into the confined space before a word is said. Garth McConaghie once again plays with live sound effects, a karaoke sequence that delights, and some original songs that place the action in rural Ireland and showcases the great voices of the cast.

Tinderbox’s collaborative method gives the cast and the full creative team a lot of latitude to play with the text and the production during rehearsal. Patrick J O’Reilly pulls everything together as director and writer/adapter. Though the handprints of his producer, marketing and business development colleagues at Tinderbox can be seen all over the work too: it really feels like a team effort.

This imaginative reset of the story is rich and intriguing. However, the runtime exceeds some audience members’ bladders, triggering disruptive coming and going in the stalls. (Maybe not an artistic priority, but still a practical one that is worth considering.) The set with its crazy entrances and exits is novel and will be memorable. The story is compelling. The casting – particularly Farren in the titular role – is excellent. Some of the best moments come when the whole family clamber over the car in exhuberent celebration but I just wish that there was a greater gradient to the sense of doom and foreboding that would make this into a real helter skelter race to the bottom and the finale.

Yerma is produced by Tinderbox Theatre Company and is part of the upcoming Belfast International Arts Festival. The run continues in the Lyric Theatre until Sunday 3 November.

Photo credit: Carrie Davenport

Appreciated this review? Why not click on the Buy Me a Tea button!