‘Walking the boundaries’: Lynne Parker’s unpublished version of Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crossing the frontiers looking for inspiration has been part of the Irish literary tradition, and translation and adaptation of continental writers such as Federico García Lorca have played an important role. The dissenting Lorquian voices revive in Ireland to find new meanings for the silences of the original play. This article explores an unpublished version of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, by Lynne Parker (The House of Bernarda Alba, 1993). The study will first review the relationship between Irish theatre and continental drama by the end of the twentieth century, to address its internationalization as well as the relationship between the North and the South; after this, the contexts of (re)creation of the play will be analyzed, with a special interest in the situation of women in society in the Spain of Lorca and the Belfast of Parker. The study will include a revision of the process of Hibernization Parker carried out from the English version she used as a source. Furthermore, an interview with the playwright will be used to illustrate some points. Conclusions aim at recognizing the play as an act of linguistic acculturation and appropriation and as part of the canon of Irish rewritings of Lorca.