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The Duchess of Malfi – RSC 2108

The Duchess of Malfi
by John Webster

D of malfi 18

Directed by Maria Aberg
Designer- Naomi Dawson
Music Orlando Gough

Royal Shakespeare Company,
Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Saturday 17th March 2018, 14.30

CAST:
Jeff Alexander – Doctor
Areth Ayeh – Julia, mistress of the Cardinal
Greg Barnett – Delio, friend of Antonio
Graeme Brookes – Officer
Will Brown – Roderigo
Alexander Cobb – Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria; twin brother to the duchess
Ashley Gayle- Silvio
Francis Gush -Counter Tenor
Amanda Hadingue – Cariola, waiting woman to the Duchess
Richard Hurst – Grisolan
Solomon Israel – Officer
Joan Iyiola – The Duchess of Malfi, a widow
Chris New – The Cardinal, elder brother of the duchess and Ferdinand
Nicholas Tennant – Bosola, spy and ex-galley-slave
Paul Woodson – Antonio de Bologna, Steward of the Duchess’s household

Dancers with Duchess at the rear

For the plot details and historical background, see my review of the 2012 Old Vic Production of The Duchess of Malfi here. This is the third major UK production of Webster’s play in six years. The Old Vic one, starring Eve Best, was so good that it’s kept the play in the collective. This one is even better. Maria Aberg has also directed Webster’s The White Devil at the RSC, with Joan Iyiola as Zanche.

I guess it pays to advertise. The Times a week ago told us that more blood (3000 litres or 40 bath tubs) had been ordered for this production than for any previous RSC play. I thought the quest for bloodier and bloodier productions had run its course, but not so.

At the beginning, the Duchess pulls on a large headless animal of indeterminate species (“a beast”) which is suspended belly forward over the stage. In Act II, it gushes blood. Hang on, I’ve seen this before! Carmen Disruption at The Almeida in 2015 had a large dead bull that exuded black liquid all over the stage. Perhaps it was supposed to be bull shit; it certainly was bullshit in that production. At the time I said ‘at least it wasn’t blood.’ Here it is. At least they have provided blankets to protect the front row (issued in the interval), something which Jamie Lloyd’s Richard III at the Trafalgar Studios failed to do in 2014, sending people from the first few rows home spattered with stage blood. I have a major aversion to productions that cover actors completely with mud, blood, flood, downpours of rain or bodily fluids.  It’s odd that the RSC thought it a good wheeze to plant press stories about the quantity of blood to gain publicity. If I hadn’t already bought tickets, it would have prompted me not to bother. That’s a pity, because this is a marvellous production.

The counter argument to the excess of gore, is that it is THE strongest Jacobean play about male violence to women with a totally clear plot, so in line with 2018’s concerns. Hence the more horrific it can be, the stronger the message is. Joan Iyiola who plays the Duchess said:

“If a young girl comes to see The Duchess of Malfi now and this is her definitive production, that’s going to be her lasting memory and that’s going to be the conversation that she carries into the world. If you have the opportunity, it is about what you can do for the generation coming up behind you.”
Joan Iyiola, The Stage 5 March 2018

Boudica in which she starred last year at The Globe was a pretty good argument too. Our most distinguished newspaper critics agreed on a four star rating for The Duchess of Malfi.

Enter the Duchess: Joan Iyiola. Ferdinand on the right (Alexander Cobb). Beast suspended. A bull? What?

I thought it a rock concert start in that the doors closed and we waited in silence for a full three minutes before the play started. Then I realized they had been positioning the beast for Joan Iyiola, as the Duchess, to drag onto the stage. The play is not only heavily cut, and characters eradicated (e.g. Julia’s cuckolded husband), but also significantly re-ordered in places, greatly to its advantage. It’s modern dress. The set resembles a gym, and we have an all male ensemble dancing and singing. However the singing and dancing is male, brutal, athletic, threatening.

The cutting (and delivery) gave clarity to the lines in a way I had missed in the two other versions I’ve seen. Webster has some intricate inventive similes in there too. Try Boseola’s speech:

There was a lady in France, that having had the smallpox, flayed the skin off her face, to make it more level; and whereas before she looked like a nutmeg grater, after she resembled an abortive hedgehog,

or

I would sooner eat a dead pigeon, taken from the soles of the feet of one sick of the plague, than kiss one of your fasting.

The three main characters, the siblings, are all cast younger than normal. Joan Iyiola is the Duchess, Chris New is the older brother, the Cardinal. Alexander Cobb is Prince Ferdinand, her twin. It works. It gives energy to the intrinsic plot.

The Duchess (Joan Iyiola) and brother Ferdinand (Alexander Cobb)

Joan Iyiola as the Duchess gives a powerful performance. She sounds authoritative with a rich voice, and looks marvellous. Early on she has an Afro wig that makes you think of a soul singer diva with charisma. She’s sensual when she wants to be with her chosen new spouse (she is a widow), Antonio, her steward. She gets in close and provocative, offering her gold wedding ring to heal his bloodshot eye … my mother used to think rubbing gold on a stye cured it too. (Medical warning: it doesn’t). As a widow, she is assertive on female sexuality in a world of double standards:

Diamonds are of most value, They say, that have passed through most jeweller’s hands.

Well, that’s the text. I remember it as “pearls.” Either they changed it, or my ears are going. But then she switches to icy cold with her pervy twin, Ferdinand, whose incestuous desires are apparent. Alexander Cobb is a discovery. This is going to be one of the best male performances of the year, just as Joan Iyiola is going to be one of the best female ones.

The Duchess’s chosen husband, Antonio is a “gentlemen” but not an aristocrat. That’s marked here by Paul Woodson having the only regional accent in the cast, Geordie. Her elder brother, the Cardinal, and her pervy twin, Ferdinand, are Princes of Aragon. The Spanish royal family at a time when Spain was the most powerful nation in the world.

The Duchess with Antonio (Paul Woodson)

In other productions, while they cast a charismatic Duchess, the play naturally falls in interest once she has been murdered (and what a murder it is by strangulation). Here she’s still on stage, on the bed, then ghostly watching from the rear. The cutting near the end eradicates the “Duchess of Malfi” effect (a phrase I’ve used in other reviews) which means killing off your best character far too long before the end. She also appears earlier in the play than in the text. All good moves.

Boseola (Nicholas Tennant)

Boseola (Nicholas Tennant) is the key figure holding the strands of the play together. He’s an ex-galley slave, who was sentenced to seven years for murder. Galley slave? Not much call for that job nowadays. He’s set by the brothers as a spy on the Duchess. If you haven’t read the plot, Ferdinand and the Cardinal are far away in Rome, and visit infrequently enough for the Duchess and Antonio to produce three children in their absence. That’s where Webster deviates from the original history / Italian tale where the Duchess was a widow, and two of the kids might have been from the first husband. In fact, this production shows how to use children on stage (in total contrast to Macbeth, playing in the theatre next door, which gets it so wrong). Don’t give them lines. Use them visually. Tennant’s Boseola has some of the best lines.

Chris New’s Cardinal wears white gloves throughout … and has powerful scenes where he thrusts his hand up his reluctant mistress’s skirt while forcing her on the bed, then later murdering her by having her kiss a poisoned bible. That was a good Renaissance Italy trick, but not one the Russians have picked up on yet. Excellent performances by both.

The other murdered woman … all the women die … is Cariola, the Duchess’s gentlewoman. I thought the cuts took away some of her pleading for mercy to the murderers (a pity) but maybe not. There was a lot of activity at the time.

Julia, the Cardinal’s mistress (Areth Ayeh)

The music is superb. The first half’s full version of I Put A Spell On You is the best I’ve heard the song, sung by Julia (Areth Ayeh). In the second half, Joan Iyiola sings a keening wordless song which sounds African,  accompanied by “the madmen” that Ferdinand has surrounded her house with.

Joan Iyiola as The Duchess with dancers

After what we thought a somewhat dodgy Macbeth the night before, this was a first rate production in every area … but …

But did they need that sea of blood?

murder

The murderers take Cariola (Amanda Hadingue) and the Duchess (Joan Iyiola)

The murder of the Duchess and Cariola is a massively powerful scene, but it’s strangulation, not stabbing.

When the carcass of the beast is first impaled by Ferdinand’s dagger, it is belly forward, the knife goes up between the legs, and it looks close to the animal’s sexual organs. Several other reviews describe it as a “bull” , but it is singularly lacking in a bull’s most obvious characteristic, and has a distended belly. The programme describes it thus:

We looked at spaces and architecture that were very masculine and male-dominated and which had a brutal, harsh, physical and competitive quality to them  … a brutal-looking underground gym, an old derelict and crumbling sporting stadium and an abbatoir … Central to the idea is the carcass of an oversized and abstract bull which symbolically sits in the space throughout the piece. A creature of enormous power and strength, yet trussed up and dragged through the space
Naomi Dawson, designer

Look at the pictures above of the legs, where they join. It looks like a female animal to me, and memories of stabbing between the legs in Maria Aberg’s production of The White Devil, reinforces that. Subliminal? Deliberate? I never saw it as a “bull” abstract, or even emasculated. Anyway, from there on the stage fills with blood. I don’t think anyone actually got spattered, but they did have blankets and some held them up to their chins. The cast all end up writhing in blood and soaked in it as the vicious males finally fall upon each other and everyone is killed.

6157

Too much blood … Ferdinand (Alexander Cobb) and The Cardinal (Chris New)

My point is that in the blood-free part one, the actors, dancers and musicians totally succeeded in creating all the necessary menace and fear. Did the blood increase that? Not to me, though because there was so much swilling about, it wasn’t sickening. They were doing fine without all the gore, and I think that a moderate amount of gore when people were stabbed etc, might well have been more frightening than wallowing in it.

IMG_0061 2

TV monitor in the lobby after the performance as people leave. That’s how much blood there was.

A small minus point. One of the most powerful scenes in the play is when Ferdinand in total darkness asks the Duchess to kiss his ringed finger. When she points out that it’s cold, he claims (as the lights go up) that it’s the severed hand of Antonio. Trouble is from the front stalls we couldn’t see the hand at all. Hold it aloft! Only later is it thrown to Boseola.

All in all, a great RSC production. As in 2017, the Swan Theatre starts the year ahead of its larger sibling theatre next door. An odd thing, I always think “colour blindness” should be avoided for characters who are cast as close relatives. But it was only after placing the photos in this review that I actually noticed the incongruity of ethnicity for alleged “twins.” That’s how convincing they were.

I’m very tempted to five stars … but all that blood really was OTT. But we have seen such great performances in such a vibrant, visceral setting. I don’t award half stars (though 4.5 is probably right) so … no … yes … no … yes!

*****

MUSIC CREDITS

How can the RSC persist in pages of acknowledgments … images, patrons, the company yet fail to credit I Put A Spell On You which occupied a brilliant two minutes stage time? It was written by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in 1955. The best-known (best?) version was by Nina Simone in 1965, and that’s the one this version referenced.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
4.5
Katy Roberts, The Reviews Hub ****1/2
4
Michael Billington, The Guardian ****
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph, ****
Domenic Maxwell, The Times ****
Maxie Szalwinska, Sunday Times, ****
3
Sarah Hemming, Financial Times ***
Tom Wicker, The Stage ***
2
Michael Davies, What’s On Stage **

LINKS TO REVIEWS ON THIS BLOG

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
The Duchess of Malfi, 2012 by John Webster, Old Vic
The Duchess of Malfi – 2014 by John Webster, Wanamaker Playhouse

MARIA ABERG
Fantastic Mr Fox, Nuffield, Southampton 2016
As You Like It, RSC 2013
The White Devil, RSC 2014
Doctor Faustus, RSC 2016

JOAN IYIOLA
Boudica, Globe 2017 (Alonna)
The White Devil, RSC 2014
The Roaring Girl,  RSC 2014
Arden of Faversham, RSC 2014

NICHOLAS TENNANT
All’s Well That Ends Well RSC 2013

ALEXANDER COBB
The Seagull, by Chekhov, Nuffield, Southampton 2013 (Konstantin)

 

 

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        • The Manfreds 2011
        • The Manfreds, P.P. Arnold 2003
        • The Manfreds, P.P. Arnold, Zoot Money, Nov 2016
        • The Mastersons, Hymn For Her
        • The Mavericks
        • The palmer james group
        • The Platters
        • The Searchers
        • The Transports
        • The Unthanks 03.11
        • The Unthanks 04.2012
        • The Unthanks 10.2012
        • The Unthanks 12.11
        • The Unthanks 2.2015
        • The Unthanks 2019
        • The Unthanks 2022
        • The Unthanks 5.2017
        • The Waterboys
        • Thea Gilmore
        • Tom Jones
        • Van Morrison
          • Van Morrison 1998
          • Van Morrison 1999
          • Van Morrison 2000
          • Van Morrison 2001
          • Van Morrison 2002 Jan.
          • Van Morrison 2002 Oct.
          • Van Morrison 2003 Jul.
          • Van Morrison 2003 Sep.
          • Van Morrison 2005 Mar.
          • Van Morrison 2005 Nov.
          • Van Morrison 2007
          • Van Morrison 2012
          • Van Morrison 2013
          • Van Morrison 2019
        • Ward Thomas, Hyde Park
        • Zawinul Syndicate
        • Zoot Money
      • Gigs, venues and prices
      • HMV. His Master’s Voice silenced?
      • Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
      • Music From Big Pink – 50th anniversary
      • Names, Scribble & Numbers
      • Nancy Sinatra
      • Note of Hope (Woody Guthrie)
      • Phil Everly RIP
      • Rock pictures
      • RoseAnn Fino
      • Shadows In The Night
      • Thank You For The Muzac
      • The Band reviews & pictures
      • The Beautiful Old
      • The Village Green Preservation Society
      • The Weight – covers
      • Twelve Songs For Christmas 2013
    • rants
      • 100 Days Plus and Counting …
      • Driving Me Mad …
      • A Fishy Story
      • A Legal Matter
      • A Post-Brexit Vision
      • Agatha Christie: Deduction in a dell’arte mask
      • Allergies … and lawyers
      • Baby Boomer v Wokeperson
      • Barcodes
      • Beaujolais Nouveau …
      • Best of 2011
      • Best of 2012
      • Best of 2013
      • Best of 2014
      • Best of 2015 – music
      • Best of 2015 – Theatre
      • Best of 2016 – Music
      • Best of 2016 – Theatre
      • Best of 2017 – Music
      • Best of 2017 – Screen
      • Best of 2017- Theatre
      • Best of 2018 – Music
      • Best of 2018 – theatre
      • Best of 2019 – Concerts
      • Best of 2019 – Theatre
      • Best of 2019- Music
      • Best of 2020
      • Best of 2020- Music
      • Best of 2022 – Music
      • Best of 2022- Theatre
      • Cars are cars
      • Chorizo is Vile
      • Christmas Markets
      • Christmases long past …
      • Civil Wars & Statues
      • Climate Change: my rant
      • Communication skills: Leaders TV debate 2015
        • Opposition Leader’s Debate, 16 April 2015
      • Crisis at the Cash Register
      • Culture Shock Bourbon Street
      • Cycling in London (and elsewhere)
      • Encounter: Saul Bellow
      • Eurovision 2022
      • Fawlty Towers and Tall Poppies
      • Flags and anthems
      • Football nicknames
      • Free Broadband in Every Packet!
      • Guilt and innocence
      • Hail, hail, the first of May
      • Howards End is a blur
      • In the April Garden …
      • In The Days of Covid-21
      • In the May Garden
      • Jangle Bells: shopping for Christmas
      • Jumble Sales
      • Land Of My Mother’s
      • London-centric theatre
      • Mail v Guardian
      • Major Brylcreem or My adventures in the CCF
      • Matinees
      • Not an amazing grace
      • On The Road: Information overkill
      • Parent and child spaces
      • Poppies
      • Princely Names
      • Quaint hotels
      • Remember, remember …
      • Secondhand Christmas
      • Shrink wrapping albums
      • Sloppy fiction?
      • Someone will call you back …
      • Sound … and Fury… at The Globe
      • SS-GB – Mumbling soundtracks
      • Supermarket check-outs
      • Surveys
      • Testing in schools
      • The “Poldark” Effect
      • The 2019 watershed?
      • The 70s were crap
      • The Building Behind Me …
      • The Cheerful e-bay seller
      • The Curse of The Crawleys: Downton Abbey Series 10
      • The Decline of Bournemouth
      • The End of Deference …
      • The Famous Five – by Paul F. Newman
      • The four day week?
      • The Great War
      • The Hacking Cough
      • The Long & The Short Of It
      • The March of The Halloumi Fries
      • The Shakespeare Cod-Piece
      • The Stitch Up
      • View From The Queue
      • What happened to car CD players?
      • What’s happened to air travel?
    • stage
      • ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore – Cheek by Jowl
      • ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore – Wanamaker
      • 8 Hotels
      • A Damsel in Distress
      • A Little Hotel On The Side
      • A Mad World My Masters
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – BBC TV 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Bridge 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Filter 2011
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Grandage 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Propellor 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC 2011
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – RSC 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Selladoor 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Watermill 2018
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Watermill Tour 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Young Vic
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bath 2016
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe 2019
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Headlong
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare
      • A Midsummer Nights Dream – Handspring 2013
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream RSC 2016 Revisited
      • A Number
      • A Streetcar Named Desire NT Live
      • A Taste of Honey
      • A Very Very Very Dark Matter
      • A View From The Bridge
      • A Woman of No Importance
      • Abigail’s Party 2013
      • Absolute Hell
      • Ah, Wilderness!
      • Albion
      • All My Sons
      • All New People
      • All’s Well That Ends Well – RSC 2013
      • All’s Well That Ends Well- 2018
      • All’s Well That Ends Well- RSC 2022
      • Amadeus – 2014
      • Amadeus – NT 2017
      • American Buffalo
      • An Enemy of The People
      • An Ideal Husband 2018
      • An Ideal Husband- 2014
      • Antony & Cleopatra – RSC 2013
      • Antony & Cleopatra – RSC 2017
      • Antony and Cleopatra – Globe
      • Antony and Cleopatra 2012
      • Arcadia
      • Arden of Faversham
      • Around The World in 80 Days
      • As You Like It – Globe 2015
      • As You Like It – Globe 2018
      • As You Like It – National 2015
      • As You Like It – RSC 2019
      • As You Like It RSC 2013
      • Awful Auntie
      • Bakkhai
      • Balletboyz: The Talent
      • Barber Shop Chronicles
      • Bartholomew Fair
      • Beauty & The Beast (Ballet Theatre UK)
      • Before The Party
      • Birthday
      • Bitter Wheat
      • Black Comedy
      • Blithe Spirit
      • Blithe Spirit – Bath 2019
      • Blood Wedding
      • Blues For An Alabama Sky
      • Boudica
      • Bring Up The Bodies
      • Broken
      • Candida
      • Cardenio
      • Carmen Disruption
      • Caroline or Change
      • Comedy of Errors – Globe
      • Comedy of Errors – RSC, 2021
      • Comedy of Errors NT 2012
      • Comedy of Errors RSC ’12
      • Communicating Doors
      • Comus
      • Copenhagen
      • Coriolanus – NT Live
      • Coriolanus – RSC
      • Crazy For You
      • Curiosity Shop
      • Cymbeline – RSC
      • Cymbeline – Wanamaker
      • Dancing At Lughnasa
      • Death Of A Salesman
      • Deathtrap
      • Dedication
      • Dido, Queen of Carthage
      • Dinner With Saddam
      • Doctor Faustus
      • Don Carlos
      • Don Juan in Soho
      • Don Quixote
      • Doubt – a parable
      • Dream
      • Dunsinane
      • Echo’s End
      • Educating Rita
      • Edward II
      • Electro Kif
      • Endgame / Rough for Theatre II
      • Eyam
      • Fallen Angels
      • Fantastic Mr Fox
      • Far
      • Farinelli and The King
      • Fences
      • First Light
      • Flare Path
      • Follies
      • For Services Rendered
      • Forests
      • Fortune’s Fool
      • Forty Years On
      • Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use The F-Word.
      • Frankenstein – NT Encore
      • French Without Tears
      • Funny Girl
      • Future Conditional
      • George’s Marvellous Medicine
      • Girl From The North Country
      • God of Carnage
      • Gypsy
      • Hairspray, The Musical
      • Half A Sixpence
      • Hamilton
      • Hamlet – Cumberbatch
      • Hamlet – Globe 2014
      • Hamlet – Maxine Peake
      • Hamlet – NT 2010
      • Hamlet – RSC 2016
      • Hamlet RSC 2013
      • Hamlet- Almeida / BBC 2017
      • Hamlet- Young Vic 2011
      • Hangmen
      • Harlequinade / All On Her Own
      • Harlequinade / All On Her Own – review
      • Hay Fever
      • Hecuba
      • Hedda Gabler
      • Hedda Tesman
      • Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 RSC
      • Henry V – 2018
      • Henry V – Jude Law
      • Henry V – RSC 2015
      • Henry VI – Rebellion
      • Henry VI – Wars of The Roses
      • Henry VI: Three plays
      • Hobson’s Choice
      • Hogarth’s Progress
      • Home
      • Home, I’m Darling
      • Hysteria
      • Imogen (Cymbeline) – Globe 2016
      • Importance of Being Earnest 2010
      • Importance of Being Earnest – Suchet, 2015
      • Importance of Being Earnest – Watermill
      • Importance of Being Earnest 2014
      • Importance of Being Earnest- 2018
      • Inala
      • Institute
      • Into The Hoods – Remixed
      • Ivanov
      • Jack Absolute Flies Again
      • Jeeves and Wooster
      • Jerusalem
      • Jerusalem – 2018
      • Jitney
      • John Gabriel Borkman
      • Julius Caesar – Globe 2014
      • Julius Caesar – RSC 2012
      • Julius Caesar – RSC 2017
      • Ka
      • King Charles III
      • King John – Globe 2015
      • King John – Rose, 2016
      • King John – RSC 2019
      • King Lear Frank Langella
      • King Lear – Antony Sher, RSC 2016
      • King Lear – Barrie Rutter
      • King Lear – David Haig
      • King Lear – Globe 2017
      • King Lear – McKellen 2017
      • King Lear – Russell-Beale
      • Kiss Me Kate
      • Kunene and The King
      • La Bête
      • Lady Windermere’s Fan
      • Leopoldstadt
      • Life of Galileo
      • Little Shop of Horrors
      • Local Hero
      • Long Day’s Journey Into Night
      • Love
      • Love For Love
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost – 2018
      • Love’s Labour’s Lost- 2016
      • Love’s Labour’s Won
      • Love’s Sacrifice
      • Love, Love, Love
      • Macbeth – Globe 2016
      • Macbeth – McAvoy 2013
      • Macbeth – National Theatre 2018
      • Macbeth – Tara Arts
      • Macbeth – Young Vic
      • Macbeth RSC 2018
      • Macbeth, RSC 2011
      • Macbeth, Watermill 2019
      • Macbeth- Chichester 2019
      • Macbeth- Wanamaker 2018
      • Mack & Mabel
      • Malory Towers
      • Man and Superman
      • Mary Poppins
      • Me and My Girl
      • Measure for Measure – Globe 2015
      • Measure for Measure – Young Vic
      • Measure for Measure RSC 2012
      • Measure For Measure- RSC 2019
      • Medea NT live
      • Miss Julie / Black Comedy
      • Miss Littlewood
      • Mojo
      • Monsieur Popular
      • Mrs Warren’s Profession
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2014
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2017
      • Much Ado About Nothing – NT 2022
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Old Vic 2013
      • Much Ado About Nothing – Rose 2018
      • Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2014
      • Much Ado About Nothing- Northern Broadsides
      • Much Ado About Nothing- RSC 2016
      • Much Ado About Nothing- RSC 2022
      • Much Ado About Nothing- Wyndhams 2011
      • Murder On The Orient Express (stage)
      • Murder, Margaret and Me
      • My Brilliant Friend (play)
      • My Night With Reg
      • Neighbourhood Watch
      • Nell Gwynn
      • Nice Fish
      • No Man’s Land
      • Noises Off
      • Obsession
      • Oklahoma! – Chichester
      • Once
      • One Man, Two Guvnors
      • Othello – Globe 2018
      • Othello – RSC 2015
      • Othello NT 2013
      • Othello- ETT 2018
      • Othello- Wanamaker 2017
      • Othello- Watermill 2022
      • Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
      • Our Man in Havana (musical)
      • People
      • People Like Us
      • Pericles
      • Peter & The Starcatcher
      • Peter and Alice
      • Peter Gynt
      • Peter Pan (pantomime)
      • Peter Pan Goes Wrong
      • Photograph 51
      • Pitcairn
      • Plastic
      • Platonov
      • Playing Cards 1: Spades
      • Plenty
      • POSH
      • Present Laughter – Chichester 2018
      • Present Laughter – Old Vic 2019
      • Present Laughter- Bath 2003
      • Present Laughter- Bath 2016
      • Pressure
      • Private Lives
      • Privates On Parade
      • Punishment Without Revenge
      • Punk Rock
      • Pygmalion
      • Quatermaine’s Terms
      • Queen Anne
      • Quiz – James Graham
      • Racing Demon
      • Ralegh: The Treason Trial
      • Relative Values
      • Richard II – Globe
      • Richard II – RSC
      • Richard III – Almeida
      • Richard III – Apollo 2012
      • Richard III – Freeman
      • Richard III – RSC 2012
      • Richard III – RSC 2022
      • Richard III – Spacey, 2011
      • Robin Hood (panto)
      • Romantics Anonymous
      • Romeo & Juliet – Globe 2017
      • Romeo & Juliet – RSC 2018
      • Romeo & Juliet 2014 – Box Clever
      • Romeo & Juliet, Headlong 2012
      • Romeo & Juliet- Branagh 2016
      • Romeo and Juliet – NT, 2021
      • Romeo and Juliet- Globe 2015
      • Romeo and Juliet: Tobacco Factory
      • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
      • Ross
      • Rules for Living
      • Salomé – RSC
      • Same Time, Next Year
      • School nativities
      • Secondary Cause of Death
      • Separate Tables
      • Shakespeare in Love
      • She Stoops To Conquer – Bath 2015
      • She Stoops to Conquer – Rain or Shine
      • Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads
      • Skylight
      • Slava’s Snowshow
      • Snow in Midsummer
      • South Pacific
      • Spring Awakening
      • Stepping Out
      • Strife
      • Swan Lake
      • Sweet Bird of Youth
      • Switzerland
      • Tamburlaine
      • Tangomotion
      • Tartuffe- RSC
      • The Alchemist – RSC
      • The Argument
      • The Beauty Queen of Leenane
      • The Beauty Queen of Leenane – 2021
      • The Beaux Stratagem
      • The Birthday Party
      • The Book of Mormon
      • The Broken Heart
      • The Canterbury Tales
      • The Captive Queen
      • The Caretaker
      • The Chalk Garden
      • The Changeling
      • The City Madam
      • The Constant Wife
      • The Country
      • The Country Girls
      • The Country Wife
      • The Cripple of Inishmaan
      • The Crucible, NT 2022
      • The Crucible, Old Vic 2014
      • The Deep Blue Sea – 2019
      • The Deep Blue Sea-NT live, 2016
      • The Doctor
      • The Dresser
      • The Duchess of Malfi – 2012
      • The Duchess of Malfi – 2014
      • The Duchess of Malfi – RSC 2108
      • The Entertainer
      • The Famous Five: A New Musical
      • The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich
      • The Ferryman (Acts 2 & 3)
      • The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
      • The Four Seasons: A Reimagining
      • The Game of Love and Chance
      • The Ghost Train
      • The Height of The Storm
      • The Homecoming
      • The Hot House
      • The Hypochondriac
      • The Hypocrite
      • The Jew of Malta
      • The Knight of The Burning Pestle
      • The Ladykillers
      • The Lie
      • The Lieutenant of Inishmore- 2018
      • The Lieutenant of Inishmore-2001
      • The Lock In
      • The Lock In Christmas Carol
      • The Magistrate – NT Live
      • The Magna Carta Plays
      • The Man In The White Suit
      • The Merchant of Venice – Almeida
      • The Merchant of Venice – Globe
      • The Merchant of Venice – RSC
      • The Merry Wives – Northern Broadsides
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor – Globe 2019
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor – RSC 2012
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor- RSC 2018
      • The Misanthrope ETT
      • The Miser
      • The Narcissist
      • The Nightingales
      • The Norman Conquests
        • Living Together
        • Round & Round The Garden
        • Table Manners
      • The Odyssey
      • The Painkiller (2016)
      • The Play That Goes Wrong
      • The Play What I Wrote
      • The Price
      • The Provoked Wife
      • The Recruiting Officer
      • The Rehearsal
      • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
      • The Rivals
      • The Roaring Girl
      • The Rover
      • The Ruling Class
      • The School for Scandal
      • The Seagull
      • The Seagull- Chichester
      • The Seven Year Itch
      • The Shoemaker’s Holiday
      • The Silver Tassie
      • The Southbury Child
      • The Spire
      • The Storm
      • The Syndicate
      • The Taming of The Shrew – RSC 2012
      • The Taming of The Shrew – RSC 2019
      • The Taming of The Shrew- Globe 2016
      • The Taxidermist’s Daughter
      • The Tempest – Bath Ustinov
      • The Tempest RSC 2012
      • The Tempest RSC 2016
      • The Tempest- Wanamaker
      • The Truth
      • The Two Noble Kinsmen- 2018
      • The Two Noble Kinsmen- RSC
      • The Unfriend
      • The Upstart Crow
      • The Wars of The Roses
        • Edward IV
        • Henry VI
        • Richard III
      • The Watsons
      • The Way of The World
      • The Weir
      • The Whale
      • The White Devil – Globe
      • The White Devil – RSC
      • The Winter’s Tale – Branagh
      • The Winter’s Tale – Cheek by Jowl
      • The Winter’s Tale – Globe 2018
      • The Winter’s Tale – RSC 2013
      • The Winter’s Tale – RSC 2021
      • The Winter’s Tale- Wanamaker
      • The Witch of Edmonton
      • There and Back Again – An Odyssey
      • Thérèse Raquin
      • This Happy Breed
      • This Is My Family
      • Timon of Athens
      • Timon of Athens – RSC
      • Titus Andronicus – RSC 2017
      • Titus Andronicus- Globe 2014
      • Totem
      • Travels With My Aunt (musical)
      • Travesties
      • Tristan and Yseult 2017
      • Troilus & Cressida RSC 2018
      • True West
      • Twelfth Night – Apollo 2012
      • Twelfth Night – Globe 2017
      • Twelfth Night – Globe, 2021
      • Twelfth Night – NT 2017
      • Twelfth Night – RSC 2017
      • Twelfth Night – Watermill
      • Twelfth Night – Young Vic
      • Twelfth Night RSC 2012
      • Twelfth Night- ETT 2014
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona – 2016
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona – RSC
      • Two Gentlemen of Verona- 2013
      • Uncle Vanya (Hare)
      • Uncle Vanya (McPherson)
      • Venice Preserved
      • Vice Versa
      • Volpone
      • Vulcan 7
      • Watership Down
      • Way Upstream
      • What The Butler Saw
      • While The Sun Shines
      • Wolf Hall
      • Woman in Mind
      • Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown
      • wonder.land
      • Worst Wedding Ever
      • Woyzeck
      • Yerma (2017)
      • Young Chekhov Season
      • Young Marx
    • video
      • A Weekend Away, A Week By The Sea
        • Sections: Weekend Away / By the Sea
      • Dennis Cook: A history
      • Drama, dialogue and video
      • Teaching with video: techniques
      • Video: non-authentic
      • Video: on location
      • Video: Peter Viney Interview
      • Video: What happened?

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