The Duchess of Malfi (8th week)
Teddy Hall’s Old Dining Hall
Sunday 7th March 2pm, 7.30pm, Monday 8th and Wednesday 9th March, 7.30pm
“The most spectacular performance was undoubtedly that of the Duchess herself, played Hannah Daly. This tricky and exhausting role – one of the most interesting female roles of this period of theatrical history – needs a powerful and convincing stage presence which Daly fully supplied.” Katie Newman and Katy Parkes
The Duchess of Malfi 
Review by Katie Newman and Katy Parkes
John Webster’s impressive Renaissance tragedy The Duchess of Malfi was movingly performed in the intimate and contextually appropriate setting of Teddy Hall’s Old Dining Hall. This basic yet effective production – with its sparse set, lack of music and only occasional mood lighting – relied heavily on the skill of the leading actors, and on the whole was not disappointed. The most spectacular performance was undoubtedly that of the Duchess herself, played Hannah Daly. This tricky and exhausting role – one of the most interesting female roles of this period of theatrical history – needs a powerful and convincing stage presence which Daly fully supplied. From her very first entrance – and her commanding posture draped over her chair before her first lines – to her final death scene, with her submissive stance in front of her killer, showed a woman whose life had been broken, whilst she yet retained the inner strength which is key to Webster’s character. Her decline throughout the play from protagonist in complete control, to victim at the hands of a brutal killer, was expertly captured, and effectively symbolised by her shift from her initial position on the chair as a kind of throne of authority, to the (slightly incongruous) wooden block centre stage, and finally to her death on the floor at the feet of both Bosola and her enraptured audience. Consistently commanding both the characters in the play and her audience, Daly’s astute characterisation was encapsulated by her wonderful delivery of one of the most moving and memorable lines of the entire play:
“I am Duchess of Malfi still.”
Her relationship with her twin brother Ferdinand, played by Robert Williams (nice cheekbones, by the way), was an interesting take on the twisted relationship between the two in the play itself: portrayed here less as the division between good and evil, moral and immoral, controlled and unhinged, the mirroring of characterisation gave a new intensity and depth to the relationship of siblings (made darker and more threatening by the indubitable hint of incest), their ultimate mutual destruction and his horror at his own actions increasing the sympathy of the audience to this cruel and calculating character. His portrayal of Ferdinand throughout was one of psychological depth which Webster’s character arguably lacks, the empathy which this inspired in the audience adding to the poignancy of his final descent into madness.
The play as whole was an intense and moving rendition of this tragic tale of lust and betrayal, the strength of the cast enabling them to continue even at the rude interruption of a fire alarm. One suggestion however: when lifting fellow cast members, do try not to drop them.
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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It is a shame that the John Oldham Society’s penultimate performance of the Duchess of Malfi was played to an audience that filled, at most, only third of the seats in Teddy Hall’s ODH. Tom and Jack’s choice of play, though perhaps not to everyone’s taste, was perfectly in keeping with the ODH’s dark wood-panelled walls and gilt framed portraits. And, for such a small-scale production, this show has real class: it is slick, compelling and showcases several very talented actors.
For a start, delivering seventeenth century dialogue in way that holds audience attention is never easy and yet all of the cast (albeit some intermittently) managed to pull this off. There were a number of outstanding supporting parts like Rebecca Creamer as the Duchess’s handmaid who brought real sincerity to the character; Amelia Jenne was particularly good in the disturbing scene in which she plays a recent escapee from an asylum and the actor playing Delio was a complete natural at delivering Webster’s difficult speech pattern.
To comment briefly on some of the leading roles, Nick Higgins as Bosola did not let the artifice of the play’s dialogue get in the way of his naturalistic performance that made Bosola such a pitiable character, although in his earlier scenes he mumbled slightly too much and sadly many of his lines were lost. Robert Williams as Ferdinand was intense, particularly so in the early scene in which he reads out the letter containing details about his sister’s illegitimate children. Hannah Daly as the Duchess was regal, defiant, graceful, passionate – I could go on. She performs the tragic role in a way that renders the Duchess a true heroine, with such subtle depth and believable emotion. I hope that this is not the last play I will watch Hannah act in.
I was a stranger to the play before this performance and though I think I may have missed the finer points of the story, I became really involved in the action – willing the Duchess of Malfi to live and escape, flinching as poor Bosola is stabbed. I am still not sure that early seventeenth century revenge tragedies are ‘my thing’ but this is a great production that certainly deserves to play to more than a half empty auditorium.
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