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Theatre The Duchess of Malfi, Almeida Theatre London

Feminist intent to the fore in striking interpretation of dark drama

IN THIS 1614 revenge tragedy by John Webster, the widowed Duchess of Malfi (a youthful Lydia Wilson) secretly remarries, against her brothers’ wishes. Her spouse, Antonio, is the steward of her household and not of equal social status.

Suspecting something is going on, her brothers send Bosola (Leo Bill) to spy on her. Inevitably, events spiral bloodily out of control.

Vulnerable, fiercely loving, highly intelligent and otherworldly, the mesmerising Wilson is very much at the heart of a production in which director Rebecca Fracknell foregrounds Webster’s female characters, with waiting woman Cariola — given an emotionally intense performance from Ioanna Kimbook — very much in prominence as part of the family.

It appears that to facilitate this feminine focus, the Duchess’s brothers Ferdinand (Jack Riddiford) and the Cardinal (Michael Marcus) take up less space, literally and emotionally. But this downplays the danger and threat they pose and their attempts to control their sister seem languid rather than menacing.

That’s not the case with Bill as Bosola, whose dark humour and disconcerting violence as the malcontent brings the sense of menace into sharp relief. As he grapples with the Duchess, a constant sense of destruction bubbles underneath the surface.

George Dennis’s soundscape seeks to inject tension into proceedings but at times it distracts. When the Duchess sends her husband and eldest child away she states, with beautiful simplicity: “My laurel is all withered.” Here, though, Wilson’s delivery is overwhelmed by swelling sound.

In what’s a visually arresting piece of theatre, Chloe Lamford’s set is dominated by a large glass enclosure which contains the characters — a highly effective literalisation of the play’s language of claustrophobia.

Like Fracknell’s previous Almeida production of The Three Sisters, this is an original engagement with the text, with a striking visual language. Not everything may work but the conceptual intent is arresting.

Runs until January 25, box office: almeida.co.uk

 

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