"Make no mistake – this is a dark, dark play, packed with madness, blood, lies, infidelity, abuse of power and murder"
The play opens with a sudden deep bass note that drowns all audience chatter. A golden door descends and a child runs across the stage in semi-darkness. But can the Playhouse’s new production of John Webster’s classic Jacobean drama keep up the pace, the shocks, the sheer bloody horror?
By and large, yes – there are few lags and little time to pause for breath or reflection in this seventeenth century piece that set the template for what became known as ‘revenge tragedy.’ Even though the plot winds on with the unsurprising inevitability of a time piece this play can still shock in its portrayal of the depths to which humans can plunge in their quest for revenge, especially on those they are supposed to love the most.
Make no mistake – this is a dark, dark play, packed with madness, blood, lies, infidelity, abuse of power and murder, and director Fiona Buffini makes good use of chiaroscuro lighting and chilling music to reinforce the ghastliness of the tale. The audience, silenced by the deep bass notes which greet the opening of each act, lets out a groan of dismay and shock as one character gets her neck twisted and snapped. But that is later.
The fair Duchess of Malfi (Beatriz Romilly), widowed, wants to re-marry. She falls in love with a courtier, Antonio (Jamie Satterthwaite), secretly marries him and has three children. Alas for her, for him, and the children, the Duchess’s two brothers, one the Duke Ferdinand, the other a powerful Cardinal in Rome, regard the marriage as a gross insult to their family honour. The matter is simple: she is marrying below herself.
From this, everything follows as the brothers use all their fiendish resources to discover the marriage, separate the couple and then force the Duchess into some kind of submission to their will. By the time the interval comes we can guess that the second part of the play will bring only more sadness and darkness for the Duchess and her family. So it proves, although this being seventeenth century drama the plot arc ensures that vengeance at this insane level of intensity has a tough price to pay.
From this, everything follows as the brothers use all their fiendish resources to discover the marriage, separate the couple and then force the Duchess into some kind of submission to their will. By the time the interval comes we can guess that the second part of the play will bring only more sadness and darkness for the Duchess and her family. So it proves, although this being seventeenth century drama the plot arc ensures that vengeance at this insane level of intensity has a tough price to pay.
Full marks to designer Neil Murray for the atmospheric sets, which are modern enough to allow firearms but could also date from the Italian Renaissance. The scenes involving the thoroughly corrupt Cardinal (Patrick Brennan), all intense scarlet, with a massive suspended crucifix at their centre, as if Catholicism itself was on trial for the sins its servants commit, are highly effective. The play’s unsubtle portrayal of corruption at the heart of Rome was certainly topical when I watched this play on Bonfire Night.
Another scene where the grinning visage of his brother in crime, the Duke (Chris Jared), suddenly appears in the mirror behind which he is hiding is also memorable. One more main character, Bosola (Matthew Wait), is essential to the smooth running of the story as he variously acts as the Duke’s informant, the Duchess’s friend and keeps the audience informed of what’s going on in Webster’s rich English. But, in the play’s world view, even penance for past crimes cannot save this wrong-doing and wronged man from a fate he has helped to orchestrate.
Another scene where the grinning visage of his brother in crime, the Duke (Chris Jared), suddenly appears in the mirror behind which he is hiding is also memorable. One more main character, Bosola (Matthew Wait), is essential to the smooth running of the story as he variously acts as the Duke’s informant, the Duchess’s friend and keeps the audience informed of what’s going on in Webster’s rich English. But, in the play’s world view, even penance for past crimes cannot save this wrong-doing and wronged man from a fate he has helped to orchestrate.
Duchess of Malfi plays at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 14 November 2015.
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