image: Nottingham Playhouse
Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the Conspiracy Season?
We always have a busy autumn season, but this time, we’ve got four really strong plays on the same theme. That being the relationship between the individual and the state – how does the state try to control the individual? What means will the state go to? I think it’s a really important question.
You’ve chosen The Duchess of Malfi, arguably more of a revenge play…
It’s a Jacobean revenge tragedy and, in my opinion, it’s the greatest of those plays. The wonderful thing about the Jacobeans is that they were much more similar to us than the Elizabethans or the Shakespearean world. In Shakespeare’s world, order prevails. No matter what happens, you know that the baddies will be punished, Richard lll is going to end up dead. You have a sense that you’re living in a godly, ordered universe.
In Jacobean plays, you don’t. You live in a universe that is morally more ambiguous. Society is driven by desire, corruption and passion and the plays are a comment on that society. In a way, it could be seen as a revenge play because everyone ends up dead, but as an audience I don’t think you ever recover from the Duchess’s murder.
Is the status of women a theme you particularly wanted to draw on?
I think it’s inescapable. We’re using twelve actors, three of whom are women. That’s a big statement in a male-dominated society. The Duchess of Malfi is such a wonderful person filled with kindness, wit, generosity of spirit and intelligence. She’s a modern woman, powerful; not only because she is a duchess, but because she’s a good person. She’s not only killed, but tortured to death because her brothers believe it is their right to control her. That’s why they sanction her murder. It’s an inescapable theme of the play.
The thing I love about this play is that she is a most extraordinary character. The light that shines through the universe is from her. Even after everything her brothers inflict on her, her spirit isn’t crushed. To me, the play is about the resilience of the human spirit. That Webster chose a woman to represent that, I think is amazing. The depth of character you get in the duchess is extraordinary – that range of character in that era was reserved for men.
The ordeal the duchess goes through at the hands of her brothers draws a lot of parallels to the domestic violence and abuse women still experience today. Would you agree that this is what makes the play so relevant?
That desire to control a woman is, absolutely, still very relevant today. The corruption of society also makes it relevant. Every institution that we have in the UK has been shown up to be something slightly different – the police over the Hillsborough scandal and the Ratcliffe power station story – it’s a shit heap, basically. There’s a cynicism of the world in that play that we can really identify with. We have no faith in anything. It’s a very beautiful love story as well. That’s always going to bring audiences in.
Do you find theatre to be a particularly effective way of challenging what’s going on in the world? Is that something you personally try to do?
The best theatre explores or wrestles with some aspect of being human. It’s where we look at ourselves and go, “What is this all about?” We’re studying human experience in the theatre. Drama should make us ask interesting questions about the world and society we live in. This season is part of that – the plays chosen are about human beings, and it’s when that collides with the State that it gets really interesting.
Are you modernising the play at all?
Yes, we’re not delivering a Jacobean-costumed production. For the design, we’ve tried to get to the heart of what the play is. For me, it’s the meeting of a fairytale with nightmare. We’ve gone for something that’s very rich. It’s not necessarily modern, but it's not Jacobean. For example, a Bakelite telephone can exist on the same table as a candleabra. It all seems to work. I’m very lucky to be working with Neil Murray, he doesn’t replicate. He creates something atmospheric that engages with the audience's imagination – giving them just enough to get them to imagine the rest of it.
If you look at the set, it’s like an old painting – dark in the corners and you’re not really sure what’s there. There are these really rich drapes hanging down and real candle light. It’s stunning. We’ve got a wall at the back with three huge doors in it, and that’s it. It’s a black box things fly in and out of. It’s fluid, and quite dream-like. It should haunt us and disturb us to watch. In Act 4, the Duchess is trapped in a dungeon so we’re going to have these huge gauzes hanging from the ceiling, you’re not really sure what they are, and then just this little wooden chair in the middle of the stage that she’s sitting on. Modern audiences are a lot more intelligent than Jacobean audiences so we’ve had to be very sophisticated with it. It’s dark.
Can we expect a proper bloodbath?
Yes, absolutely. I’ve just done A Skull In Connemara which had a lot of blood in it, and we’ve just ordered a great big vat of blood. We’ve got loads of the stuff. It’s like Quentin Tarantino all over again.
You’re casting locally as well, right?
Yeah, we’re seeing everyone in Nottingham we think is suitable. It would be great to have some of our wonderful local artists in the production. The parts are so good. As you can imagine, there’s been interest in the role of the duchess from across the country.
The Duchess of Malfi, Nottingham Playhouse, Friday 30 October - Saturday 14 November, £10.50-£28.50
Nottingham Playhouse website
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