Featuring Olivier Award winner Kathryn Hunter as Yerma
Director Helena Kaut-Howson
Designer Lilja Blumenfeld
Lighting Gerry Jenkinson
Music Composed and Performed by Tayo Akimbode
Cast includes: Rachel Karafistan, Antonio Gil-Martinez, Paula O’Donohue, Maya Sondhi, Shobu Kapoor, Vincenzo Nicoli, Laura Richmond, Yvonne Wandera, Anna Lindup and Harriette Ashcroft
In Association with K P Productions
“Have you ever caught a bird and felt it tight, living in your hand?
Yes.
Well, it’s the same, only the bird is inside your blood.
Jesus. How beautiful”
Childlessness provokes a deadly conflict within a barren marriage. Yerma passionately longs for a son, but her husband is pre-occupied and unresponsive. Trapped between honour and instinct, she battles with sexual temptations. Mocked for her infertility and suspected of infidelity, Lorca’s tortured heroine is a desperate victim of her times.
In their Arcola debut, Yerma is the latest collaboration between Olivier Award winning Kathryn Hunter and internationally renowned director Helena Kaut-Howson.
Kathryn Hunter, who will play the title role, is widely acclaimed for her work with Theatre de Complicite, Shared Experience and Shakespeare’s Globe.
Helena Kaut-Howson‘s productions span Britain, Poland, Israel, Ireland and Canada, and she was Artistic Director of Theatre Clwyd, Wales.
Federico Garcia Lorca (Playwright)
(June 5, 1898 – August 19, 1936) Lorca was a Spanish poet and dramatist, but also remembered as a painter, pianist, and composer. An emblematic member of the Generation of ’27, he was murdered by Nationalist partisans at the age of 38 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
Frank McGuinness (Adaptor)
Frank McGuinness was born in Buncrana, Co. Donegal. He now lives in Dublin and lectures in English at University College Dublin. McGuinness’ Factory Girls was performed to celebrate Arcola’s 5th birthday in earlier this year.
