The Duchess of Malfi (Creation/TORCH) @ Zoom
March 27, 2021
The dynamics of looking within The Duchess of Malfi are subtle and complex. Whether in its moments of extraordinary spectacle, as dismembered bodies are revealed and cardinals are armed, or in the more quotidian business of spying, commenting, and observing from the sidelines, the play repeatedly triangulates the audience’s gaze and engages its onstage and offstage viewers …
The Duchess of Malfi @ The Almeida Theatre
January 25, 2020
Appropriate to a time when the scrutiny of celebrities – and, indeed, Dukes and Duchesses – is front page news, Rebecca Frecknall’s production of The Duchess of Malfi put its ruling figures literally into a box. Chloe Lamford’s set comprised a hexagonal stage, on top of which stood an enormous illuminated box fronted with full-length …
The Duchess of Malfi (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
June 2, 2018
I do hate Stratford-upon-Avon. Not only is it a six-hour round train journey from the East Midlands, but a single trespassing incident resulted in two cancellations and, most selfishly, me missing the first half hour of Maria Aberg’s spectacular (and spectacularly bloody) Duchess of Malfi. I am reliably informed by authorities (read: Twitter) that the …
Iyalode of Eti (Utopia Theatre) @ Sheffield Theatres Studio
September 29, 2016
Utopia Theatre has been producing works rooted in the experience of the West African diaspora for a few years now, promoting the work of BAME actors and resituating classic texts in a Yoruban context. Perhaps predictably, the company’s first foray into early modern drama was the perennial Romeo and Juliet, adapted in Nigeria as This …
The Duchess of Malfi @ Nottingham Playhouse
November 4, 2015
This is a repost of a review originally submitted to Exeunt Magazine. To the sound of seagulls and a ship’s horn, assorted servants, ladies, nobles and clergy from a range of time periods start criss-crossing the stage, piling up luggage and making preparations. Fiona Buffini’s new production of Webster’s tragedy for Nottingham Playhouse begins in …
The White Devil (Royal Shakespeare Company) @ The Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon
August 17, 2014
Webster epitomises what critics such as Susan Bennett, Pascale Aebischer and Kathryn Prince have termed ‘the Jacobean’, in the sense that refers not to the literal historical period but the subset of early modern drama which usually commands an aesthetic prioritising sex, violence, spectacle and excess. Maria Aberg, who in her previous shows at the …
The Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare’s Globe) @ BBC4
May 25, 2014
In a new age of broadcast theatre where the prices for NT Live and Live from Stratford screenings are creeping up (and where the Globe’s own DVDs are still shockingly expensive), it is refreshing and welcome to see The Globe broadcasting its major production of The Duchess of Malfi for free on BBC4. This is, …
The Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare’s Globe) @ The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
February 14, 2014
It is an absolute joy to see the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse up and running. Nestled in the Globe’s belly, jutting far into the foyer, this reimagining of a Jacobean indoor theatre is beautiful and invigorating. While its relative newness isn’t entirely to its advantage at the moment (the paint work just a little too crisp, …
The Duchess of Malfi (Stage on Screen) @ Greenwich Theatre [on DVD]
June 28, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.stageonscreen.com/the-duchess-of-malfi.php A much briefer review to accompany my earlier piece on Stage on Screen’s production of Doctor Faustus, this time of Elizabeth Freestone’s The Duchess of Malfi. Cross-cast with the same company’s Volpone, Freestone’s take on Malfi is more straightforward than either, treating the play as a chamber piece in a …
The Duchess of Malfi (Blood and Thunder) @ Hall’s Croft, Stratford–upon–Avon (archive video)
January 9, 2012
Writing about web page http://bloodandthundertheatre.org.uk/ I’m beginning the year with a binge of EM drama film recordings, including Greenwich Theatre’s Volpone, Kozintsev’s Hamlet, Taymor’s Tempest, Doran’s Winter’s Tale and Fiennes’s Coriolanus, one or two of which I may review here. One pleasure of this quiet patch is the chance to finally catch up with a …
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