Review: THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, The Globe (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)
Shakespeare’s Globe
Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi was the opening performance at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and it’s good to see this play there again ten years later. Once more, audiences have the chance to see this macabre, shocking and disturbing piece in the proximity and candlelight for which it was written – and a thrilling experience it is too.
From the beginning of the play with the newly-widowed Duchess falling for her Steward, to the machinations of her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal, and the ensuing decline into violent revenge, it is clear that no happy ending is in prospect.
In Rachel Bagshaw’s clear and assured production, the narrative arc of the play is portrayed by a confident and well-cast group of actors, supported (as usual at The Globe) by an excellent group of musicians, under Joley Cragg. Composer Anna Clock has contributed sound and music that underscores this headlong rush to disaster, and Movement Director Ingrid Mackinnon (whose work was admired a week ago at The Big Life) helps to ensure that the moments of high passion are taken seriously as well as creating an appropriately frightening atmosphere, for example when the inhabitants of the asylum are set loose.
Leading the cast is Francesca Mills as the Duchess, giving a portrayal that manages to combine flashes of vulnerability with a renewed and steely resolve. She is a magnetic performer who is in total control until her violent end. Arthur Hughes is a very convincing and naturalistic Bosola, often appearing from the audience and appealing to us to understand his actions. Oliver Huband gives a thoughtful and realistic portrayal of Antonio, perhaps one of the more attractive characters in this play, although this does not mean he will have any easier a path.
Jamie Ballard is an icy and troubled Cardinal, his initial control all the more marked when contrasted with his later downfall. Perhaps the greatest transformation is undergone by Ferdinand, the twin brother who becomes ever more unhinged and is played superbly here by Oliver Johnstone. His descent, and the business with the severed hand and waxwork effigies, is so often the cue for embarrassed laughter from the audience. It is a mark of the serious approach taken here, and the commitment of the cast, that there was no hint of that from the appalled and enthralled onlookers.
The language of the play is rich with metaphor and needs to be heard. In the close environs of the Wanamaker it was a joy to revel in the clear diction and unamplified voices of this cast, with their work greatly enhanced by the creative captioning, used with restraint at first but then with increasingly justified abandon as the plot develops.
As the candles are extinguished and the horror increases, we are left to consider once more how lucky audiences are to be able to see a Jacobean revenge drama in the conditions for which it was written: even the authentically uncomfortable seating can be forgiven for an experience like this. A definitive production then, and a thrilling evening for theatregoers.
***** Five Stars
Reviewed by Chris Abott
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