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The Duchess of Malfi (Treehouse Shakespeare Ensemble) @ The Wharf Loft
‘I account this world a tedious theatre’ spat the Duchess (Rachel Louis). If Shakespeare’s Jacques imagines the whole world as a stage where people can play their parts, then Webster’s Duchess is tired of performing. In Treehouse Shakespeare Ensemble’s Duchess of Malfi, directed by Chase Fowler,the metaphor was literalized as an abandoned theatre came to…
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The Duchess of Malfi (Red Bull) @ The Red Bull Theater (via livestream)
A group of music stands stood arranged on the Red Bull’s thrust stage, and actors emerged to sit on either side of the stage, ready to play. The concert-style environment offered a fascinating set-up for a reading of Duchess of Malfi that made intricate use of its performance constraints. Filmed live with multiple cameras, and…
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The Duchess of Malfi (Creation/TORCH) via Zoom
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…
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The Duchess of Malfi @ The Almeida Theatre
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 glass panes. The insides were tiled,…
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The Duchess of Malfi (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
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 production began with the…
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The Duchess of Malfi @ Nottingham Playhouse
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 a flurry of…
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The White Devil (RSC) @ The Swan Theatre
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 RSC…
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The Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare’s Globe) @ The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
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 beams…
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The Duchess of Malfi (Stage on Screen) @ Greenwich Theatre, via DVD
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 lengthy full text (2hrs 40 mins) that will appeal to teachers looking for a…
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Dr Peter Kirwan 