The Duchess [of Malfi] at Trafalgar Theatre
Mark Shenton in the West End
21 October 2024
Every revival of a classic play is, of course, an opportunity to let it speak to today, and allow modern actors and artists to find new colours and textures in it, while audiences (both those familiar with the original text and others who are new to it) are invited to experience it with fresh eyes. In this free version of The Duchess of Malfi – John Webster’s raging Jacobean tragedy of female agency being met by male violence – its adaptor and director Zinnie Harris signals her comprehensive overhaul of the play not only by claiming the lead authorial credit for it, but also re-titling it The Duchess [of Malfi]. In the past, Harris has put her own spin on other classics such as Oresteia, Macbeth, and Miss Julie.
Jodie Whittaker as the Duchess.
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner.
This adaptation was originally produced at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum and Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre in 2019, where the title role was played by Kirsty Stuart. It now arrives in the West End five years on as a vehicle for TV star Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who and Broadchurch) to make her first return to the stage in the decade since she starred in Antigone at the National Theatre.
She has a commanding, febrile stage presence, and though she appears initially in a glamorously striking red dress, she will soon be shorn of it and swap into a smock of depersonalized grey. The production, however, seldom moves from grey; it’s mostly coloured in monochrome. Even the play’s legendary second-act bloodbaths – which can sometimes leave audiences feeling queasy or even covered in blood (for the 2018 RSC production at Stratford-upon-Avon, the front rows were issued with plastic coverings to protect them) – are rendered without splashy Tarantino energy (in any sense).
The horrors are instead signalled by lighting (Ben Ormerod) and sound (Michael John McCarthy), which keeps the effect more muted. Tom Piper’s set – a metallic white platform – is similarly stripped back. It all owes a lot to Jamie Lloyd’s bracing theatrical vision – he staged his opening season in charge of his own company at this address, too – but without his signature flourish. (As with Lloyd’s West End misfire with Dr Faustus, which had Jenna Russell opening the second act with a song, here Whittaker begins the show with one.)
When Whittaker’s widowed Duchess secretly remarries – she has fallen in love with Antonio (Joel Fry), who in the social hierarchy of the period is regarded as beneath her station – she unleashes a torrent of disapproval from her brothers Ferdinand (her twin, played by Rory Fleck Burn) and the Cardinal (Paul Ready), who sets the spy Bosola (Jude Owusu) to keep tabs on her. The plot’s twisting turns are maintained here, but most of the performances from the supporting cast lack energy or conviction. That may be the fault of the adaptation, or simply a company who – on the night after the opening – lost confidence in what they were supposed to be doing, after some harsh early reviews.
The fizz does, however, seem to have escaped from the champagne here; or rather the head to have evaporated from the bitter.
