The play, a powerful drama of seduction and betrayal, is considered Lorca's masterpiece, though he never lived to see it staged. His public image as a revolutionary artist and his private life as a homosexual made him a political symbol.

In August 1936, soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Franco's Fascists dragged him into a field and shot him, tossing his body into an unmarked grave. Since then he has become the most-translated Spanish writer in history.

Lorca's final work deals with the recently widowed Bernada Alba, an admired breeder of fine horses, but a proud woman who insists her nosy neighbours know nothing of the incidents within her walls.

The factions within her house (her sexually repressed daughters, gossiping maids, her mad mother) shift and warp incessantly, with ultimately fatal consequences.

As seating is limited, booking is essential: tel 021-480-7129 or book via email at scole@hiddingh.uct.ac.za.