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The Duchess Of Malfi
Playwright - John Webster
Director - Dominic Hill
Designer - Tom Piper
Lighting Designer - Bruno Poet
Composer - Anthea Haddow
Choreographer - Jane Howie
Fight Arranger - Carter Ferguson
Company - Dundee Rep Resident Company
Venue - Dundee Rep www.dundeerep.co.uk
01382 223530
Tay Square 7 mins walk to train
Dates -Previews
5 & 8 Oct at 7:30pm 9 - 26 Oct at 7:30pm not Suns
Mats on 12 & 19 Oct at 2:30pm
Run Time 3 hrs 10 mins including 15 interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Sends horror into the audience
The Duchess Of Malfi - Dundee Rep Production
Lto R Alexander West, Thane Bettany, Irene Macdougall, Robert Patterson,
Ann Louise Ross and Sandy Neilson.
© Douglas Mcbride 2002
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Dominic Hill directs Webster's Duchess of Malfi so that the full depth
and scope of the Rep stage is used. Its floor is raked and closed boarded
arranged with offset stone pillars. At the back is the realm of water
and beyond it the theatre's back wall. Huge curtains are pulled and drawn
across the stage during the play to create different rooms and atmospheres.
Soon the feeling is of rich Jacobean rooms with shot red silken walls,
but grubby marks begin to appear as the simple plot draws towards its
disturbing, bleakly bloody scenes where that precious liquid not just
spills or stains but streams towards the front edge of the stage. It is
not a play or a production for queasy, squeamish eyes or, when a tap runs
on and on, for weak full bladders.
At the start returning Antonio recalls the cleaned up kingdom of France,
where the State is being run in ordered ways. We're introduced to the
murkier world of this Italian setting. The Cardinal and the elder of the
Duchess's brother's, Sandy Neilson, resplendent in his red silk
raiment is entertaining a married woman, Julia. Ann Louise Ross's
Julia, beautifully attired in an off the shoulder gown is highly skilled
at manipulating, not a young woman, she still exudes attraction. The Duchess's
other brother, Ferdinand the Count, Alexander West, is clearly
shown to have more than familial concerns for his sister. In the title
role, Irene Macdougall is a flawless Duchess, the only pearl in
her family, you believe her virtue will protect her.
Her brothers pay Bosola, Rodney Matthew, to keep an eye on the
widowed Duchess and her household. Bosola, hired spy already disillusioned
by life finds himself becoming even more a stranger to honour and righteousness.
He discovers eventutally the attractive Steward of the Duchess's household,
Antonio, Keith Fleming, has become so close to his mistress they
are already secretly married. Bosola tells the brothers. Through him they
exact a revenge which is even more terrible than they plan. Bosola finds
that his own attempt to himself avenge the revenge he has been paid for
disasterously fails.
There is a bit of tinkering with script, two children are completely removed
from the story, the lunatics only gibber and the time period of the play
is shortened. Seeing the play for the first time I was stuck by echoes
of history, other plays, other playwrights - an arras used to overhear,
caged birds mentioned while the denying of an order after its was executed
recalls King Henry II and Beckett.
Webster's play is savage in its stage action, and Hill's cast handle all
well including the speeches where characters appeal to us, witness to
the strife. And it's fascinating in how a straight forward single plot
can yield so many varied scenes, including lyrical love scenes movingly
played by Macdougall and Fleming. They are well counterpointed
by the lascivious undercurrented ones of Nielson and Ross.
The director's only falter, why the modern hospital trolley? That aside
the direction and set are more than complimented by Bruno Poet's lighting
- his use of shadows and gloom is masterly.
The shocking savagery of the revenge sends horror into the audience and
for a few it is too much. Near the end when the living are much outnumbered
by the dead looking on from the watery back of the stage, as Bosola struggles
to carry another bleeding corpse some retreat into gallows laughter. Laced
with an ironic pause, the woman behind me remarked, "Great .......families".
Indeed we can be thankful our lives are not too like that dear Duchess's.
But be wary if, in the land you live, the laws and codes are too much
abused, as was England when Webster wrote this play, for corruption breeds
corruption. A play which fits this time as well as his prehaps.
Finally there's one thing that troubles me - it's not this play or its
production nor the actors I have named. It's that when I know what play
Dundee are going to do I know who will play what before I read it in the
programme. The ensemble idea has many advantages which has yielded sometimes
fine productions. But a bit more cross casting and variety in types of
plays would stretch the ensemble even more and delight the audience.
The Rep contains actors who make each part unique and different from the
last, but just a few in the company, seen in play after play, are beginning
to look as if they have changed their costume but not their stock character.
Retaining ingenuity in approaching each role afresh can become more difficult
in a longstanding ensemble. I love it when I don't recognise on stage
an actor I've seen before and so do lots of theatre goers. That transformation
is one of the things we pay to see, actors and companies forget that at
their peril when they let us see shades of their pervious parts.
© Thelma Good 9 October 2002. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
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