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Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonThomas Middleton’s play seems perfect for the #MeToo era, but this over-stylised production misses the mark
Thomas Middleton’s revenge drama about patriarchy, predation and the manipulation of young women seems like a perfect play for our #MeToo era. So it is entirely fitting that Amy Hodge’s show takes place in contemporary dress and on a set that looks like an opulent hotel lobby carrying queasy associations with Harvey Weinstein, though Hodge says it is a nod to 1980s America and Trump Tower.
The Jacobean tragedy has strains of unsettling humour alongside its darkness and this production pushes the comedy so that it veers close to farce. It is an entertaining and original way of reimagining the play, but ultimately it leeches the drama of its intensity and serious themes feel undercut by archness and playfulness. Tara Fitzgerald plays Livia more as a comical minx than a woman who both controls and destroys lives. Her romantic fixation with Leantio is played with humour so we do not feel an authenticity in her passion, nor in her sorrow when he is slain. Continue reading...