First off, the contemporaneity spin off was very traumatic and disturbing in a way that I will probably never understand. Having a child is meant to be one of the most exhilarating and most beautiful things in the world; I’m on about actually physically seeing the child when thy first arrive, not the sex or the actual pain from giving birth. The fact that Billie Piper’s character was driven to madness because she couldn’t conceive, really does show how far the mind can bend before it snaps. It was false hope more then anything and choosing to believe it really only brought more pain and suffering. A loss and a waste of a life just because she needed that unborn child, she deep down knew she could never have.
The thing that makes it worse is the fact she was leading a good successful life style with a good job as an editor, a house, and her Aussie husband. Its the brutality of a relationship and how far one is to go for the person they love. In her mind as well its the sense of running out of time and getting too old to quickly in order to conceive.
She entered a part of her life where she decided she wanted a child, a natural response. However it was out of her reach, yet she kept pushing for the impossible ruining her own life and letting the unthinkable take control. Those dark nasty thoughts and feelings. One who is of a sane mind, wouldn’t dare allow them to rise to the surface and boil over. Then again there is only a thin line between saintly and insanity, so one who would class themselves as having a stable mind are most likely the craziest of us all.
“Piper’s portrayal of a woman in her thirties desperate to conceive builds with elemental force to a staggering, shocking, climax.”
DramaOnline
The main difference between this adaptation and the original is the time setting, one is in 1934 Spain while the other is placed in a modern day London. Yerma in the original kills her husband by strangling him when finding out he never really wanted a child in the first place. Yerma in turn regrets her fatal, in the heat of the moment job realising that she killed her only chance of ever actually having a baby. The play ends with Yerma saying, “Don’t come near me because I’ve killed my son. I myself have killed my son!”
In the new adaption she kills herself, her final words talking to her child and how she’ll be with them very soon. This is after her husband has left her in their empty cleared out apartment thanks to them having no money and a very catastrophic and much needed fight.
Yerma deals with the themes of isolation, passion, and frustration but also the underlying themes of nature, marriage, jealousy, friendship, anger, denial, regret, loss, pain and madness, losing all sense of self and all concepts of what life is really about, becoming fixated on the impossible and that goes for both play and the new updated version where she actually in the script is called Her and not Yerma.
Lorca’s work is still very much relevant in our modern world now, his work screams truth and talks about problems we still struggle with as a society today. Relationships, love, children, loss, mental health, belief, trust, trauma, sex many things that have moved throughout time with humanity.
The set was very unique, all performed within a glass box, the audience looking in on this world placed inside it. Its a good underlying message on how Yerma’s life feels like its coming at her from all angles, her confrontation blocking out the real world and keeping her in this suffocating environment.
The fast scene changes done by the lighting was so cool and very effective. I didn’t like the use of wording on the screen though, I just felt like it was unnecessary, especially if it was just a day later. Years I can understand but even then I just felt it wasn’t needed. All that could have been done was a clear indication on stage from someone that it was a different time. Now the darkness can be interpreted as a time pass which works but the wording just didn’t do it for me.
I love how it got me thinking it was one thing then the other, like when Her was in fact holding a baby and it was a lovely family setting but it turns out to be her sister’s.
Billie Piper put on such a splendid performance, she said herself it was something different to what she’s done before and it felt very fresh and new coming from her! The way she portrayed this obsessed, sick if you will, delusional women was done with immense fascinating skill! You could tell as the months turned into years how more and more stir crazy she was becoming, getting jealous of her sister being able to have children, blaming her husband for not always being there and slowly being consumed by this hunger for love and passion derived all from this tiny helpless little bundle of what’s suppose to be joy.
At the end where lighting was used to switch from the different point of views, was just astonishing pulling you in with each shift and swift change from one character to the other!
What started out plummy and over-entitled reduced me to audible gasps as I found myself completely gutted by her obsessive honesty and frightened by her possession. In every way a modern woman she differs from Lorca’s Yerma whose whole reason of being is to provide a child – instead Piper allows this discussion to reflect outwards rather than in projecting modern sensibilities and expectations directly back at you whatever your sex.
https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/yerma-review-of-billie-piper-in-simon-stones-adaptation-at-the-young-vic
It’s a very misleading play and adapted so well to our society now. Steven Stone gave an exhilarating flare to Lorca’s masterpiece, allowing the audience to be pulled in by his actors clever wit and funny yet rude opening on the subject of sex! We are then pulled in by the main story line and are gripped tightly by it, unable to let go until those final moments where it ends in an explosion of emotion, horror and then sadness.
Helen's Performing Arts Life 