»YERMA« by simon stone

adapted from Federico garcia Lorca │German translation by Brangwen Stone

SHE and her husband John do not have any problems. SHE is in her mid-thirties and a successful managing editor for a daily newspaper while also maintaining a cool lifestyle blog. He is in his early forties and makes quite a lot of money as an entrepeneur. They just bought a huge apartment in a chic older building.
Suddenly SHE presents John with a wish he never thought would play a part in her life. SHE wants a child! He is not opposed to the idea. All good so far.

But soon all ease is gone from the situation. SHE schedules their love life to only take place on her fertile days and expects John to plan out the dates of his business trips accordingly. But SHE does not get pregnant. He runs away from the pressure and is gone most of the time.
Her desire to have a child starts to turn into an obsession which taints the relationship with her sister Mary. Mary just had a child herself yet she cannot seem to form a bond with it. Their mother Helen is not helping either since she openly admits that she would have preferred her personal freedom over raising her daughters. To make matters even worse SHE lets the whole world witness her emotional distress and each unsuccessful attempt to fall pregnant by sharing it all on her blog. SHE works her herself into an absolute frenzy, her obsession taking over everything and everyone. SHE and John are lost in a nightmare they cannot seem to escape from.

»Yerma« is a spanish name meaning »fallow« or »underused«. Author and director Simon Stone (*1984) took the drama originally written by Federico García Lorca in 1934 and changed the setting from 1930s rural Andalusia to a modern big city. Both plays show the tragedy of a childless, unfulfilled woman. In Lorca's version »Yerma« is the wife of a farmer, her main job being the bearing of children. It is also her life's purpose and her only chance at being happy.
Simon Stone's version premiered in London in 2016 and was directed by him again in 2021 at Berliner Schaubühne. The play continues to be successful there ever since. His »Yerma« is a woman spoiled by success who never even thought about children but cannot accept when she is faced with the idea of failure. Exemplary this play shows how an idea can turn into self-destructive fanatism. Stone's »Yerma« along with the other female figures of the drama knock the ideal of the mother off its pedestal and actually highlight the ambivalence of the myth called »mother«.

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