Welcome to another season with Brave Spirits Theatre!
This fall we’re kicking off in repertory with two of the most well-known plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries: The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi. Don’t know very much about these dark and spectacular titles? Read on for your essential introduction …
“He’s bold and I am blamed for it.”
The Changeling follows the story of young Beatrice-Joanna on the coast of Spain. Although Beatrice-Joanna is already engaged to a gentleman named Alonzo de Piracquo, she falls in love with a traveller named Alsemero when she meets him by chance at her church. Desperate to avoid her impending marriage to Alonzo without offending her father, Beatrice plots to have her father’s servant, DeFlores, kill her fiancé. Meanwhile, at the local madhouse, two men from Beatrice’s household (Antonio and Franciscus) pretend to be a fool and a madman so that they can gain access to Isabella, the wife of the local asylum steward. When DeFlores extorts repayment for his murderous deeds from Beatrice, she suddenly finds herself trapped under the weight of her secret and her mounting desperation to keep it …
Thomas Middleton, frontis from “Two New Plays” (1657)
Thomas Middleton and William Rowley based their play in part on a moralistic story published in 1621 by John Reynolds. It was first performed in 1622 at a private house and its playwrights had already collaborated together on A Fair Quarrel, The Old Law, and a Jacobean masque (Neill xi). Its first printed list of characters in 1653 clearly labels Antonio as “the changeling” which, at the time, would have been a term that described his false identity, his assumed mentally disability, and his deceptive and changeable nature. The production appears to have been a success before and after the Restoration, owing mostly to its comedic madhouse subplot. The frontis art for a book of theatre drolls from 1662, for example, features a foolish “Changling” alongside other popular characters like Falstaff, even though a ‘changeling’ does not actually appear in the book. Over the ensuing centuries, The Changeling has remained a famous title in the canon of early modern drama and new critical views have raised questions about who the real “changeling” in the title might be.
Though early audiences seem to have gravitated toward the play’s comedy, many modern adaptations have focused on its murderous and gruesome main plot — with some productions cutting the madhouse subplot entirely (Neill xxxvii). Beatrice-Joanna, caught in the midst of an arranged betrothal, convinces a man who is obsessed with her to commit murder and sets in motion a series of desperate actions that put her body and her soul in jeopardy. The text’s themes of secret acts, secret loves, and secret identities have continued to fuel interest and curiosity in the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond. The BBC has produced filmed versions featuring Helen Mirren with Brian Cox as well as Downton Abbey’s Elizabeth McGovern with Bob Hoskins and Hugh Grant. In recent decades, theatre audiences have seen productions directed by Richard Eyre for the National Theatre, Michael Attenborough for the RSC, Emma Rice for Kneehigh Theatre Company (called The Itch), Declan Donnellan for Cheek by Jowl featuring Olivia Williams and Tom Hiddleston, and a film adaptation in the late 1990’s.
“I am Duchess of Malfi still.”
In our second play, Ferdinand and his brother, the Cardinal, forbid their sister (the widowed Duchess of Malfi) to remarry. When the Duchess defies her brothers and secretly remarries with her steward, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out and her world begins to unravel in a whirlwind of vengeance and violence. Though the historical names and references in the text are a mix of truths and anachronisms, the play is based on a purportedly true story from Matteo Bandello about the doomed clandestine marriage and deaths of Giovanna D’Aragona and Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna.
“Portrait” of Matteo Bandello printed in 1791
Written by John Webster (you’ve probably seen him portrayed in Shakespeare in Love as the kid with the mouse), The Duchess of Malfi was performed sometime around 1613 by the King’s Men (Shakespeare’s company) at the indoor Blackfriars playhouse and then at the outdoor Globe. The first quarto publication of 1623 contains passages that were not used in performance and actually includes a cast list which features celebrity players such as Richard Burbage and Henry Condell (who helped to assemble Shakespeare’s First Folio). William Ostler, who played Antonio, would die shortly after premiering the role (Gibbons xviii). Webster’s contemporaries contributed their praises to the 1623 quarto: playwrights like John Ford (‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore), Thomas Middleton, and William Rowley (playwrights of The Changeling) hailed its performance as a triumph and a “masterpiece of tragedy” (A4r). Webster’s fascinating and macabre tale grapples with social, political, religious, and economic power structures all while exploring individual (im)moralities. Today, the play still stands as one of the most important tragedies of the period.
Theatrical interest in Webster’s work has increased over the last fifty years or so. Many famous leading ladies have tackled the eponymous role of the Duchess, including Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Helen Mirren (you can catch each performing the same scene here), Dame Judi Dench (to Michael Williams’ Ferdinand), Dame Harriet Walter, Kelly McGillis, Janet McTeer, and Imogen Stubbs. Her strength, her autonomy, and her refusal to bend to psychological and physical pressures have made the Duchess an indelible role. Beyond live productions, audiences can also take a look at a black and white film adaptation from 1938, Mike Figgis’ film Hotel (in which a documentary crew follows actors shooting The Duchess of Malfi), and a few filmed productions from the BBC, the Greenwich Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe (in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse).
Both The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi feature prominent female characters battling against the confines of their patriarchal societies. Both plays examine secrecy, sex, violence, abuse, madness, identity, and family — but they do so through very different stories. In the coming weeks, we’ll take a deeper look at those themes, as well as the creative perspectives and lenses through which Brave Spirits Theatre’s repertory team will stage its productions.
— Claire Kimball, Production Dramaturg
The Changeling previews on Thursday, October 18, and opens on Friday, October 19
The Duchess of Malfi previews on Thursday, October 25, and opens on Friday, October 26
Industry Nights: November 5 (Changeling), November 12 (Duchess)
Additional Events: Changeling artists talkback on November 9, Duchess pre-show lecture on November 10, Duchess artists talkback on November 11
For Tickets: http://www.bravespiritstheatre.com/tickets/
WORKS CITED
Gibbons, Brian, ed. “Introduction.” The Duchess of Malfi, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2014.
Middleton, Thomas. “In the just Worth, of that well Deserver, Mr. John Webster, and Upon this Maister-peece of Tragoedy.” The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy, Nicholas Okes, 1623. Early English Books Online, https://eebo.chadwyck.com/.
Neill, Michael, ed. “Introduction.” The Changeling, Methuen Drama, 2006.