Domy Reiter-Soffer

“House of Bernarda Alba” the main work of the Irish National Ballet opened last night at the Abbey Theatre. A suitable commemoration to Gracia Lorca's 50 th Anniversary. It is certainly one of Domy Reiter-Soffer's best and most Dramatic pieces yet. Set to Maurice Ohana's ominous score, with simple and highly effective décor and costumes that conveys perfectly the oppressive frustration of Lorca's all female household and the inevitable violence to which this leads.
Anna Donavan is splendid as the tyrannical widowed mother and this choreographer penchant for the great coup de theatre is fully realized when a tailor's dummy suddenly becomes Carol Bryans's excellent Miss Haversham- like grandmother. A piece of white gauze is also transformed into many practical and symbolic objects from a wedding veil to a shroud, an imaginary baby to a noose.
Mr. Jacek as pepe Romano and Denise Roberts as the youngest sister of his fiancée through a series of breathtaking lifts and indeed a whole cast are seen at their best from the taut girls to the arrogant, chauvinistic Spanish village boys. It is a wonderful tribute worthy of Lorca and the Irish National Ballet”.
(Carolyn Swift- The Irish Times).

“Lorca's powerful play, The House of Bernarda Alba, is the basis of the dramatic ballet by Domy Reiter-Soffer which was given its European premiere by Irish National Ballet in the Abbey Theatre. So to pulsing score of a disturbing guitar score concerto by Maurice ohana, the graphic choreography finely delineates the various characters in the tales of sexuality breaking through repression with tragic results.
Anna Donovan poignantly expresses both the anguish and the rigidity of Bernarda, the widow mother, dominantly determined her daughters should live according to the code, while the strength and the presence of Mr. Jacek as pepe is splendidly effective in the part of the young man who looses underlying passion.
Five daughters, all in somber black, are excellently differentiated, with Denise Roberts showing a beautifully gauged freedom of style as the rebellious youngest daughter. Carol Bryans is quite brilliant in the chilling conceived dance of aged madness. The whole ballet exudes extraordinary theatricality and excellent choreography that gives the dancers a wonderful vehicle”.
(Mary Mac Goris- Irish Independent).

“Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba was a triumph for the Irish National Ballet at the Abbey theatre Last night. The main interest was undoubtly focused on choreographer Domy Reiter-Soffer's conception of the play, which was presented to mark the 50 th anniversary of the death of Lorca on whose play this dance version is based. This powerful theme was woven around the widow Bernarda and her five daughters and set against a background of sexual frustration, is vividly conveyed by the dancers, and its somber symbolism and dramatic conclusion make it the best piece on the programme. The effective design evokes an appropriate dark mood, and Anna Donovan as the angry widow Bernarda, has one of the most rewarding roles yet. There is also much to admire in the dancing of the other characters particularly the moving and sensual duet of the young sister and Pepe Romano. This is indeed a coup for the company.
( Lindi Naughton-Sunday Independent).

“The main course of the evening was the European premiere of Domy Reiter-Soffer's version of House Of Bernarda Alba. Lorca's play attracted many creators over the years and this version remains quite faithful to the spirit of the original text while featuring all the broad, bold strokes of consummated theatricality that are the trademarks of Reiter-Soffer ballet. The Irish National Ballet does the work full justice. Anna Donovan as Bernarda and Henrietta Tennyson- Augustias as the betrayed oldest daughter extract everything that their role have to offer. There are superb images notably when Augustias is made aware of her betrayal and the most striking when Bernarda imposes her authority and her five daughters cowed into submission, and at the end, when Bernarda and her four surviving daughters
“Drown in the sea of grief”. The core of the ballet is the duet between Adele the youngest daughter and Pepe Romano. It was superbly danced and moving from the tension of sexual repression to the passion of happy abandonment. The dance is a beautiful exercise in lyrical eroticism contrasting sharply with the all-pervading repression of the other scenes.
The mood is captured perfectly from the opening notes of Maurice Ohana concerto for guitar and orchestra and the splendid taut décor. The House of Bernarda Alba has been mounted to mark the 50 th Anniversary of Lorca's death. It was an extraordinary evening and worthy tribute.
(Graham Sennett- Irish evening Press).

“Surely it is a reflection on the Dublin theatre, in contrast to most other capital cities, that the 50 th anniversary this year of the death of the noted Spanish dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca, was allowed to pass without a production of any of his played. It has been left to the Irish National Ballet, at the Abbey Theatre this week, to fill the yawning gap with a dance version of Lorca's last and most gripping Drama, House of Bernarda Alba, choreographed by the internationally known choreographer Domy Reiter-Soffer, who devised many striking ballets for this company. An impressive ballet it proved to be, encompassing, in series of vehement images, the passion and intensity of this tragic tale of the Spanish widow and her five grown-up daughters whom she keeps under fierce subjection, rejecting all possible suitors for them as being unsuitable.
The ballet is danced to a high ferment of movement, particularly by Anna Donovan, icily tyrannical as Bernarda. The other main characters Pepe Romano danced by Jacek displaying a fluid graceful style as the lover of the doomed youngest daughter, appealingly portrayed by Denise Roberts. The whole cast rose to the intricate dramatic choreography which was distilled to bare essential portraying the very essence of the dramatic quality of this important work”.
(John Finegan-Evening Herald).

“The European premiere of House of Bernarda Alba mounted in commemoration of Lorca's death, 50 years ago, with an original score by Spanish composer Maurice Ohana. Anna Donovan was cast as the dark and tyrannical Bernarda, a mother of five spinster daughters. Her dancing fills with both authority appropriately rigid casting a towering shadow of slow death over her daughters.
Domy Reiter-Soffer's choreography was most effective, bold lines and clumps of black-clad women exploded and danced in the space building a gradual and deadly tension. The whole work resonated an enormous coup de theatre and incredible sense of what theatre should be like”.
(Diana Taplin- The Sunday Tribune).