Theatre review: The Duchess of Malfi

This blog is now so old (and I'm so old) that theatres are celebrating milestones that I've previously reviewed here. The Swanamaker is marking its tenth anniversary with a new production of The Duchess of Malfi, the play that launched the venue. John Webster's infamous love of all things gory, twisted and morbid makes for a play I largely enjoy for how its extremes tip it into (possibly unintentional but honestly who knows) comic hysteria by the second half, but Rachel Bagshaw's production actually manages to find a genuine character piece in there as well. The Duchess (Francesca Mills) has been widowed very young and left with a life of luxury ruling her court: She promises her brothers she has no intention of ever marrying again. But this is a distraction technique to stop anyone trying to find a suitable second husband for her.

In fact she has someone in mind who's so far beneath her in class nobody would accept the marriage - she proposes to her steward Antonio (Olivier Huband) and keeps their marriage secret - even managing to hide the fact that she's given birth to his daughter.

But by the second pregnancy rumours are starting to circulate, and it seems the Duchess has kept the marriage secret too well: Everyone thinks she's sleeping around. We follow the story through the seemingly amoral Bosola (Arthur Hughes,) the henchman the brothers have hired to spy on the Duchess, and eventually to carry out a series of murders and twisted psychological torture techniques to put her in her place. As he sees the once-sparkling young woman be persecuted and degraded he starts to question his role in it, and turn his attention on the men who ordered it.

This isn't a production that really goes in for the gore, horror and degradation that get Webster's rocks off - not that it particularly shies away from letting us know exactly what's going on but by the time we get to the final fatal stabbing I was surprised to realise that was the first time we'd had any significant splashes of fake blood in a story that can have the stage more or less drowning in it. What we do get is a production that quickly establishes the title character as someone we're invested in: Opening with a masked ball to Scissor Sisters' "Filthy/Gorgeous," Mills quickly cements her Duchess as the life and soul of the party. This is the first time I've seen her in a completely dramatic role but her well-established comic chops come in handy for her funny, awkward seduction of Antonio.

It's a quick, early way in to getting to know a character Webster hasn't even bothered to find a name for, and it pays dividends: I was surprised by my own reaction at how tense the scene where her twin Ferdinand (Oliver Johnstone) surprises her was. Here too there's some interesting character work as I think it's particularly clear that the two brothers are split between Ferdinand as the hot, angry, destructive and self-destructive one, and the Cardinal (Jamie Ballard) as the cold, calm and sinisterly calculating one. Elsewhere Shazia Nicholls also establishes the Duchess' servant Cariola as a force to be reckoned with, whose ignominious end adds an added level of nastiness to a scene that's already silenced the audience.

Just as colour-blind casting can find different nuances in the way a character behaves and is treated, so too is the case where both leads are played by actors with disabilities: While they've both been giving great performances for years and have clearly been cast on talent, Mills and Hughes also find ways for their bodies to bring new levels to their characters. The Duchess' dwarfism becomes a way for her brothers to baby her (early on Ferdinand hugs and picks her up,) adding another motivation for them to patronise and control her, and their disgust at the fact that she might have and enjoy a sex life. For Bosola, who gradually proves not to be the undiluted villain he initially seems, it suggests how the way he's seen by everyone else might have pushed him into his life of crime. One of the ways Ferdinand gets his loyalty is by insisting on shaking him by the right hand that Bosola assumes he'll flinch from.

Of course there's no getting around the cavalcade of derangement after the interval, a world of an elaborate Madame Tussauds display created for no reason other than to upset the Duchess / dancing lunatics / an inside-out werewolf / Death By Bible, and Bagshaw adds her own surreally dark comedy as Bosola and the Cardinal have a measured argument downstage while Julia (Tamzin Griffin) noisily flails around in her death throes in the background. The production also uses creative captioning by Sarah Readman - not particularly intrusive but then again I was behind a pillar as usual - but at times being usefully deployed for the storytelling and mood, most notably when Ferdinand's surtitles go mad at the same time as he does. Apparently The Duchess of Malfi is back on the A'Level syllabus this year, Bagshaw's poroduction should more than keep the school parties happy, both in entertainment level and in unearthing all sorts of new interesting angles on the play.

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster is booking in repertory until the 14th of April at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner.