Passion, Love, Birth, and Death: A Theatrical Review on Yerma directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos
Yerma directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos is a modern production of the play written by renowned Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca. The play presents the story of a Spanish woman, Yerma, who suffers from infertility and her ceaseless desire for motherhood. Unable to fulfill the standard that the rural, traditional southern Spanish society has for women, Yerma is driven by her frenzy and ends up committing a dreadful crime.
From Sophocles to Brecht, Theodoros Terzopoulos has directed numerous tragedies and has long developed a style by incorporating body movements and rhythms into emotional communications throughout his career. There aren’t many characters in Yerma. Each of them enters and converses with the female protagonist along with a distinct posture and pace to represent each of their own relationship with Yerma and position towards her infertility and frustration. The actors are well-trained to embody the characters’ personality with movements and gestures. For example, to Yerma, Juan, her husband, is a man with a heart of stone who refuses to take a heed of her wishes. As audience, we’ll see the stubbornness in him with his rigid postures and the sturdy steps he takes. In addition, rhythms of the body is heard during the play through steps, claps, and especially, breaths. The chorus inhales and exhales while entering and dancing, creating an imposing existence that symbolizes the overwhelming pressure from the villagers.
The production is an innovation. It is also a collaboration with Tendrum Art Percussion Group and flamenco dance. The rhythmic beats of percussion instruments, hand clapping and percussive footwork of flamenco dance go fittingly with the simple yet clear choreography throughout the play. I would say this production is in fact a whole new interpretation of the Greek director. The stage design and setting of the original play are overall minimized and replaced by a minimalistic presentation. An original character is added and interpreted by flamenco dancer Lin Keng. The design of adding in flamenco dance is the only and slightest suggestion of the fact that the original play sets in the Andalusia region of Spain. Lacking elements of the original settings and a visually modern presentation can be confusing to the audience when the theme is about a rather conservative value being imposed on women by a very traditional society.
Last but not least, a special way of verbal presentation used by the director creates an odd atmosphere for the play, which takes a while for me as an audience to get used to it. All the characters articulates the lines word by word with a single pitch and a monotonic, relatively slow pace. I assumed the pace is designed to coordinate with the strongly rhythmic feature of the play, but it is performed rather oddly when it comes to Mandarin.
Overall, this is a good, recomendable performance with a high quality of music, choreography, and lighting design. However, it serves more beautifully as a modern dance performance rather than a drama to me. I was slightly disappointed for I was drawn to the theater for Yerma in the first place because of the playwright Federico García Lorca. Yet, the play had undoubtedly offered me an aesthetically pleasing viewing experience.
