Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi is the most thrilling and chilling of the Jacobean revenge tragedies – an exploration of male rage and female resistance as two brothers try and control their sister, block her marriage and repress her agency with fatal results. Read more …
It was these themes of patriarchy versus female empowerment which convinced Zinnie Harris that the play is ripe for an adaptation which chimes with our contemporary concerns surrounding the abuse of male power.
All of this is lent gravitas by an assured and stately pace as the power is claimed back in a bloody and brilliant piece of work.
The blood-soaked events of The Duchess [of Malfi], a co-production between the Lyceum and the Citizens Theatre, are almost unwatchably intense at times. As a depiction of timeless and timely considerations, however, this production is hard to beat.
A classy production.
A triumph for Citizen’s Theatre and Royal Lyceum.
Ultimately, however, the production’s few shortcomings are dwarfed by its multitudinous achievements. With this Duchess Harris another superb tragedy on her hands.
At a time when, in many parts of the world, the stuff of Atwood’s dystopian novels threatens to move from fiction to current events, The Duchess of Malfi ends with an outright demand for change that grips you in your seat.
The Duchess hits with a sledgehammer where a pin-prick would have been far more effective.
A swingeing attack against inequality and injustice … with gouts of blood.
Zinnie Harris’ innovative re-imagining of Webster’s tragedy is a powerful deconstruction of toxic masculinity.
Zinnie Harris' contemporary adaption of The Duchess of Malfi is a timely and brilliant portrayal of toxic masculinity in the modern age.
It is a brave endeavour and undeniably well-intentioned, but the execution is not sharp enough to carry it off. To succeed, this production either needed to be much closer to the original, or much further away.
This new version by Zinnie Harris, which relocates the action to a world disturbingly close to the present, is similarly unflinching [to the original]. The pared-down intensity of her update feels acutely right for our times.
Zinnie Harris’s narrow reworking of Webster’s revenge tragedy fails to persuade.
Make no mistake, this is a somewhat dispiriting and brutal story of a liberated woman brought down by the untrusting, fear-filled men around her.
Harris’s efforts have resulted in a superb retelling of this Jacobean classic.
Thankfully, the second act is much more visceral. Though the shocking misogyny is beautifully and movingly counteracted by the patient cleansing of open wounds by three generations of breaking but unbroken women led by the guitar-strumming voice of an angel Eleanor Kane.
The performances of the play's small cast are entirely brilliant, especially as the piece progresses.
Zinnie Harris on The Duchess [of Malfi]
Zinnie Harris--The Duchess [of Malfi]
Zinnie Harris reinvigorates the Duchess of Malfi for the feminist uprising era.
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday May 17, 2019, until Saturday June 8, 2019. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
Tramway, Glasgow from Wednesday September 4, 2019, until Saturday September 21, 2019. More info: www.tramway.org
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