John Webster wrote The Duchess of Malfi to be performed in a candlelit, Jacobean theatre. In other words, this 17th-century revenge tragedy is ready-made for the shadowy space of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, complete with scenes that take place in total darkness and nasty reveals with severed limbs. Ten years after this theatre first opened its doors with Dominic Dromgoole’s production, director Rachel Bagshaw’s Globe debut proves less interested in atmospheric horror effects than the emotional journeys of its protagonists.
Oliver Johnstone is a Ferdinand so plausible and affectionate that it seems quite possible this will be the story of a loving brother driven mad by his wayward sister. In a sharp black suit and shirt surrounded by fantastically colourful courtiers, there’s more than a hint of Succession’s Roman Roy about this entitled boy, his petulance and cruelty born of arrested development. Yet it’s impossible to doubt the sincerity of Ferdinand’s feelings: when the Duchess tells him she has defied him to marry Antonio, he cries.
