MANILA -- With the theme "Daluhong," a Filipino word for "assault," Dulaang Universidad ng Pilipinas (DUP) opens its 44th season with Federico Garcia Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba."

Written by Lorca two months before he died in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, it has been considered his last masterpiece.

"The House of Bernarda Alba" is about a domineering matriarch, who, after her second husband's death, imposes an eight-year mourning period in her household.

She has five daughters who are in their 20s and 30 to whom she asserts control, including their relationships with men. Isolating her family, Bernarda Alba creates a prison-like madhouse for her loved ones.

But more than being about family issues or having a dysfunctional family, it has been considered a socio-political play. The house is a microcosm of Spain's political climate that triggered the civil war from 1936 to 1939.

There's a line in the play that resonates still today among nations ruled by dictators and oppresors: "The poor are like animals. It's as if they're made of other substance."

Directed by Alexander Cortez, "The House of Bernarda Alba" opens Dulaang UP's 34th season on September 6, Friday, and runs until September 29, Sunday, with performances in Filipino and English.

After "The House of Bernarda Alba," the company will present "Fuente Ovejuna" by Lope de Vega to be directed by DUP founding artistic director Tony Mabesa and translated into Filipino by lawyer-poet Nicolas Pichay. This will run from November 8 to December 1 this year.

Meanwhile the UP Playwrights Theatre, the sister company of DUP dedicated to original materials, opens its 28th season with the re-staging of its 2018-acclaimed play on comfort women, Rody Vera's "Nana Rosa," directed by Jose Estrella, scheduled from February 28 to March 15, 2020.

During the season launch at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman, theater veteran director-actor Frank Rivera praised the DUP team for choosing "Daluhong" as its theme.

"I congratulate you for choosing 'Daluhong' as your battle-cry dahil sa panahong ito hindi ka pwedeng harapang lumalaban. Nakakatuwa na ang sining ay pwede nating gamitin para pwede nating paikutin ang mga taong pwede nating kalabanin," Rivera said, noting that the three plays explore themes on oppression, dictatorial rule, man's cruelty to his brothers and the struggle to free oneself.

"Ang mga kawalanghiyaan na 'di natin nababasa sa mga history books ay nakikita natin sa mga likhang sining. Kasi, kapag lumaban ka ngayon nang harap harapan, talo ka. Nakita natin yan noong Martial Law, ang lumaban ng harapan, dead. Ang gumamit ng sining ay buhay hanggang ngayon," he added.

"The House of Bernarda Alba" was translated from the original Spanish into English by UP professor Daily Lopez, which was translated into Filipino by Cortez.

Veteran actors and members of DUP are in the cast. led by Frances Makil-Ignacio and Gigi Escalante as Bernarda Alba, Stella Canete-Mendoza and Sheryl Cosico as Poncia, Rica Nepomuceno and Ronnie Martinez as Maria Josefa, Liway Gabo and Opaline Santos as Angustias.

Iris Montesclaros and Gel Basa will play Magdalena, Camille Abaya and Mikaela Coruna as Amelia, Sarina Sasaki as Martirio, Pauline Maxine Ignacio and Mariella Laurel as Adela, Jacqui Amper and Lei Ann Quinquilleria as servant, and Bea Racoma as Prudencia.

In a follow-up exclusive interview, director Cortez talks about "The House of Bernarda Alba."

Q: During the press con, you mentioned about a household in La Union wherein the situation is so similar with the plot of "The House of Bernarda Alba." Could you expound on this again?

A: I wish I could really have expound more. A friend Al Valenciano who runs a shop of indigenous handwoven fabrics from the north narrated the story of a mother who was very strict and did not want her daughters visited by any gentlemen that she built this house, known as the yellow house in the middle of a rice field, so far that nobody dared.

The house still stands in La Union and that’s all I know as I was not able to go La Union. Too bad as it would have added some credence to the fact that some matriarch in Ilocos can be compared to the strict Bernarda Alba.

Q: If Frances Makil-Ignacio and Gigi Escalante would play Bernarda Alba, does this mean both will do English and Filipino versions or one is for English exclusively and the other for Filipino?

A: My original intent was for them to do both languages but due to the demands of the role, I decided to limit it to each actress performing in one language only. Thus, Frances Makil-Ignacio performs English and Gigi Escalante in Filipino. Let us simplify the actors’ lives.

Both are equally great actresses with different qualities and distinct personalities, talent and passion. Gigi exudes the part 'au naturelle' as she is ‘older and wiser,’ while Frances is one excellent actress and a rare breed who has refined her craftsmanship to suit any character she wishes to portray. It will be an interesting study of two actresses attacking the role in different fashion.

Regarding the daughters, Adela will be played solely by Paulina Maxine Ignacio while Martirio will be played by Sarina Sasaki and the three other daughters will have alternates.

Q: Going further back during the planning for this season, how did "The House of Bernarda Alba" come about?

A: Actually we are very open to any plays that the Dulaang UP directors might want to do. No restrictions whatsoever but definitely we are guided by the fact that Dulaang UP is an academic/educational theater thus it is best that we think of plays that can supplement the different classes in UP related to literature, theater arts, sociology, Filipino, anthropology, arts studies and more.

At first, I intended to do a sarsuwela but since I have done two already and rather expensive, I opted to do a straight play which will put the female Theater Arts students to test. I thought one of our strengths can be gleaned from the numerous outstanding female actresses from the alumni and present crop of Dulaang UP.

Thus, 'Bernarda Alba' came about. And besides, it is also a dream play having done 'Blood Wedding' many moons ago.

Q: Kindly refresh my memory, is this the first time DUP is staging this play?

A: Yes, it is the first time that 'The House of Bernarda Alba' will be staged by Dulaang UP but I have directed the other play of Lorca, 'Blood Wedding,' and I think a student in his thesis production directed 'Yerma.' These three plays form a trilogy of Federico Garcia Lorca’s tragedies. Other theater companies have staged 'The House of Bernarda Alba.'

Q: The play is how long? How loyal is it to the original Spanish material? Or was there an attempt to make it more on the Filipino setting and a little bit contemporary?

A: It will run for more than an hour-and-a-half for four weekends starting September 6 to 29. The English translation by Daisy Lopez remained very faithful to the Spanish text. I, too, remained the same. In exploring possibilities, I decided to make the English version more 'Spanish' with sparkling of Spanish words in the play, while the Filipino version setting in the Northern Luzon with Ilocos Norte and Sur in mind.

While assimilating traditional Northern Luzon practices as in the commemoration of the dead, farm practices and other cultural ways. No, I did not want to contemporize the play. Lorca is an excellent writer and it will be a sin if I am far removed from his original intent-of making it 'Pure Realism.'

Q: Lastly, not only for students but for those working in Makati and Ortigas, the middle level executives who love theater, why watch "The House of Bernarda Alba?"

A: I wish I have the answer. Very hard and I don’t know really. Before, we had a captive market, the UP students but with this new no tuition regulation, it is no longer allowed to compulsory require students to watch our plays.

Now, it has become like an 'incentive' to those students who’d care to watch. Maybe additional merits in the computation of their final grades. We are a hard company to sell -- we don’t do commercially viable plays as other theater companies are wont to do.

I just hope that media can help create the excitement as well by what they write and say about the play. I think the actors are all very good. Gino Gonzales’ production design is simply outstanding and other elements of the production make it one play theater goers cannot possibly ignore.

I’d like to think that play has very good production values-set, lighting, costume, direction, people will come-more importantly because of the relevance of the play’s subject matter, 'the family as the state or the state as the family,' according to a friend who watched the rehearsal.

We are in very challenging times-and though the political nature is simply understated the themes of freedom, repression and religious hypocrisy ring loud in the play. I think with those significant themes, good production values, and excellent acting people will come, hopefully.