Theatre Review: The Duchess [of Malfi]

After seeing one Doctor Who on stage, it was time for another! I was lucky enough to get preview tickets for Jodie Whittaker in "The Duchess [of Malfi]".

The Duchess is… dark. No, darker than than you're imagining. I've seen plays with content warnings. This is the first I've seen where they cover both sides of a sheet of paper.

Content and Sensory Warnings - Contains Spoilers

The theatre provides these warnings:

• Themes of violence against women and sexual assault, scenes of rape and physical assault.
• Themes of violence against children. Projected image of children being shot (faces aren't shown).
• Scenes that depict violence. Assault, choking, murder, drowning, strangulation, gun and knife violence.
• Death scenes. Scenes showing murder, corpses of adults and children and the ghosts of those who have been killed.
• Use of stage blood, haze, herbal cigarettes and weapons. These are used throughout the show.
• Strong language and sexual themes referenced throughout the show.
• Recurring sudden lud noises. Sounds of static, loud buzzing noises, gunshots, and background music.
• Flashes of lights to introduce characters.
• Details of a help line available from Mind

Being a media-addled philistine, I can only really compare this to films. It could easily be billed as "Tarantino! Live on stage!" The first half is hilarious. A modern Jacobean farce where every line is a zinger, and the dialogue is all overly-detailed quibbles. It is smart, sexy, menacing, wry, and it is very clear who is getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop. Characters are introduced with huge projected captions, the barren stage morphs around the characters, the music and singing may or may-not be diegetic.

It is almost a charming sex-comedy. Veering between a bedroom farce and a horror movie. The tone gets progressively darker. Sadistic. Amoral.

This is a play about morality. It is clearly a sin for a woman to be in control of her passions. An adulterous widow mustn't just be punished; she must be made to suffer. This is the natural order of things.

While we're laughing at her feminine wiles, we're also chuckling at her feminine naïveté.

The silliness builds skilfully even though the drumbeats of disaster are pounding ever louder in the background, I went into the interval feeling rather jolly. It is so energetic and playful that the exhilaration overpowers the dread.

Hold on to that moment of good cheer. You'll need it to sustain you through the torture-porn of the (mercifully shorter) second act.

As per the content warning - the audience is also subject to many of the same abuses as The Duchess.

And then…

Within the Tarantino-esque blood and gore is a dance. A musical. A shadow play. Where spirits dance and ghosts come alive. It is animalistic and primal. The theatre literally bares all for us.

You don't need me to tell you how morality tales end.

It is an exhausting two and half hours. The newly refurbished Trafalgar Theatre has comfortable seats with ample legroom. Even at the back-end of the stalls we had a clear view of the stage. Well, for those brief moments when I summoned the courage to peek through my fingers.

The play is advertised as being suitable for 14+. It certainly isn't appropriate for young Whovians wanting their first taste of "proper" theatre. It is a bloody and brutal affair. The levity is never directed at the pain. But it also doesn't provide a soothing balm.

Pure electric theatre. An outstanding and outrageous evening for those who can stomach it.