Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'.It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculeanstruggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrennessbecomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society thatdenies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for achild drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play.

This Student Edition comes complete with a full introduction; plot synopsis;commentary on characters, context and themes; bibliography;...

Bernarda Alba is a widow, and her five daughters are incarcerated in mourning along with her. One by one they make a bid for freedom, with tragic consequences. Lorca's tale depicts the repression of women within Catholic Spain in the years before the war.
The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca's last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real characters and described by the author as 'a true record of village life', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions...