Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price The tale of an impassioned, childless woman living with her husband in rural Spain. Tortured by her incessant longing to conceive a child, Yerma is driven by madness to commit a heinous crime. Federico García Lorca's play Yerma was first performed in 1934. This English translation by Jo Clifford is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series. The edition also includes an introduction by Jo Clifford, a chronology and suggestions for further reading.