The Duchess (of Malfi) Review - A Bloody Brilliant Retelling
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| By
Sian McBride
(Updated on May 12, 2025)
Wearing a blood red dress and black stilettos, Jodie Whittaker looks nothing like her history-making thirteenth Doctor. Yet she effortlessly transports you to another world as if she were still at the helm of the TARDIS.
A modern retelling of the Jacobean play, The Duchess (of Malfi) blends old values and modern speech to create a gripping, thrilling and shocking night out. With theatregoers gasping and pleading with characters on stage, this radical version of the 400 year old play is a bold and brutal punch in the gut. In the best possible way.
But it isn’t the All Saints jeans and clinical set that makes this centuries old play feel so modern, it’s the Duchess herself. She is a widow but she isn’t wallowing. In fact, much to her prudish brothers chagrin, she’s thriving. Her husband is dead, but she is determined that her social life, her future, and her sense of self, shouldn’t go to the grave with him. The Duchess believes that she is entitled to a rich future - her brothers (The Cardinal played by Paul Ready and her twin played by Rory Fleck Byrne), however, are only concerned about her wealth and the family's standings.
Power-hungry and puritanical her siblings scold the Duchess’ desires. Worried how their sister's actions will affect the family legacy, they devise a plan to destroy the lineage. Cutting out the sister before her infliction, her infection, can spread.
It’s a playful take on the traditional. All too often female characters from history are undervalued, their parts as small as the cinched in waist their corsets provide. Here the Duchess is allowed to breathe, to scream at her daily battle with injustice and hypocrisy. It's a furious and ferocious evening, which will haunt you long after you have left the theatre.
Reigning at the Trafalgar Theatre until 20th December 2024, tickets are available now.