PROMPTED by the enthusiastic Yorkshire response to Tamasha’s Bollywood Wuthering Heights, set in late 18th century Rajasthan, the British Asian company and Harrogate Theatre have linked arms to mount the premiere of Sudha Bhuchar’s re-imagining of Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House Of Bernarda Alba.

Bhuchar, the company’s co-founder 21 years ago with director Kristine Landon-Smith, has re-located Lorca’s Spanish play from 1936 to the fertile Punjab region in modern-day Pakistan.

Skype, Blackberry and Osama Bin Laden all feature in the script, not merely for topicality, but also to emphasise the world beyond the parameters permitted by matriarch Bilquis Bibi (the domineering Bernarda Alba figure here), who stifles her five unmarried daughters by obsessively upholding the family’s status.

Ila Arun, a household name in India and soon to be seen in the film sequel West Is West, plays Bilquis Bibi, while Indira Joshi, from The Kumars At No. 42, takes the role of her senile mother. They are names to draw an audience, but Landon-Smith’s dull direction has the opposite effect, distancing the performers from those watching.

The opening and closing scenes require you to peer through slits in a wall, while at one point two cast members sit talking at length in a chair placed upstage but facing the back. Most of the all-female cast need to speak more slowly too, a fault highlighted by the contrasting clarity of Ila Arun.

The House Of Bilquis Bibi, Tamasha, Harrogate Theatre, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, then on tour

Box office: 01423 502116