This classic text was originally performed in 1614 and it is interesting to see that the universal themes of power, sex and love can still have a hold over the intervening five centuries. This production is set in 1950's Italy with the time and the place adding an underlying style, decadence and violence. The idea of 'respect' is central to the action, as the script has it "Do you know what reputation is?" The set is a triumph providing a visual feast, huge monumental, marble-clad spaces are represented simply but effectively.
 | | Guy Williams as the worldly Cardinal |
The stylish 1950s clothes of the female cast make a vivid splash of colour in an otherwise monochrome world. The men are represented mainly by dark, sharp fitting suits. Only the Cardinal is allowed to cut a dash, his dark garments offset by (appropriately) blood-red additions. It is very Dior 'New Look' and as gorgeous as a Fellinni film. Congratulations to designer Leslie Travers and the team. Despite director Philip Franks hope in the programme that the audience would not be held at arms length by the 'difficult language' I found it hard to be drawn into this seedy world. The story of a woman trying to live outside the social rules of her times is a dramatic one, and it certainly spins off into an orgy of violence but I found it curiously unmoving. The widowed Duchess, who defies the controlling influences of her brothers and their dark warnings, secretly marries the man she loves and the die is cast. Individual performances stood out, especially Imogen Stubbs as the Duchess and Guy Williams as the Cardinal, but all too often it seemed to be a series of portraits and stunning still lives about power - rather like a Velasquez painting, pretty but enigmatic. The Duchess of Malfi is at the West Yorkshire Playhouse until Saturday 11 November 2006. | 
