Theater: Sterility Rite

Yerma means barren in Spanish, and the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater means barren in English. The latest fiasco produced by the team of Herbert Blau and Jules Irving is a work of the late Federico Garcia Lorca, a gifted poet but an inept dramatist. For two hours, without intermission, the heroine Yerma (Gloria Foster) yearns publicly and privately to have a baby. The playgoer comes out of this hot bathos convinced that this Spanish , town could certainly use an adoption agency.

Actually, Yerma is no-barren. It is her husband Juan (Frank Langella) who is sterile — and doesn't want any babies...