Tuesday 22 October 2024

The Duchess [of Malfi] - Review

Trafalgar Theatre, London



****



Written and directed by Zinnie Harris
After John Webster



Jodie Whittaker


Zinnie Harris offers up an imaginative swipe at John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, taking the Jacobean tragedy and thrusting its 17th-century themes into a modern-day staging.

Making her return to the London stage, Jodie Whittaker is the recently-widowed Duchess who, against the wishes of her brothers, wishes to rebuild a life of emancipated sexual independence, much to their controlling shame. Harris follows Webster’s broad plotline, with her dialogue reflecting a modern parlance – and notwithstanding the play’s centuries-old roots, its message remains timely.

Harris places the story's misogyny of the story centre-stage. While her women may be the tragic victims of their controlling menfolk, they are all bestowed with a divine afterlife that offers a display of their strengths not often seen in this tale’s retelling. That being said, the violence meted out to them is cruel, graphic and deliberate, while most of Harris’ menfolk die through Tarantino-esque bungled shootings.

It’s not just misogyny that Harris puts in the spotlight. Paul Ready’s Cardinal makes an excellent display of the promiscuous hypocrisy of the Catholic church and if one then considers the  honour-killing that sits at the very heart of this story, one has to reflect on the prevalence of such murders that are sadly all too prevalent amongst some UK communities today.

Harris’ narrative is exciting and her violence graphic. Whittaker plays a sympathetic victim, far more sinned against than sinning ably supported, in particular, by Jude Owusu’s deeply flawed Bosola and Elizabeth Ayodele’s naively trusting Julia. Tom Piper’s staging is brutally simple, with Jamie Macdonald’s jarring videos adding to the evening’s horrors.

The Duchess is an intelligent revision of a classic that forces us to recognise the timelessness of evil.


Runs until 20th December
Photo credit: Marc Brenner

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