“There’s always a beautiful veneer with a grisly underbelly,” explained director Tariq Leslie. Like the dark side of the moon, The Duchess of Malfi delves into the deepest hollows of humanity and questions the bare truth of what lies within our souls.
This season, the Ensemble Theatre Company has lined up three plays: The Duchess of Malfi, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Normal Heart. “The wonderful thing about this season is that all of these plays are investigating human rights [and] how society treats people,” says Alison Raine who plays the Duchess.
As Leslie explains, the majority of the ensemble within the company are also in one of the other two pieces; it takes tremendous focus to switch between the characters and the different settings of each play.
Raine, for example, plays the Duchess in the historical setting of The Duchess of Malfi and is also performing in The Cripple of Inishman, a play set in the modern world. She states that the important thing is managing both your own energy level and that of other people. In theatre, unlike film, the cast is able to form a deeper sense of connection and community due to the larger number of rehearsal hours.
The Duchess is based on the story of Giovanna d’Aragona, containing a fine mixture of historical facts and fictional embellishments. It follows a young widow who secretly marries her steward, much to the disapproval of her two brothers. In the heat of madness and jealousy they seek their revenge, enacting a macabre tragedy that tears each character apart.
Raine says her character is a strong woman. She is a mother who chooses a man out of love, which was revolutionary at the time. “She was noble, not in the sense of aristocracy, but noble in spirit, honourable, and passionate,” says Raine. For her, the play is about the Duchess’ journey to find grace; she’s a woman who, amidst imprisonment and torture, is able to find meaning in life and accept death gracefully.
The notable distinguishing factor with this production would be the time period shift from Jacobean to a pseudo-Victorian era. Leslie wanted an era that wasn’t terribly forlorn; he also saw that many of the original stations and positions would have made it harder for the modern audience to relate to. He stresses that he did not “change the Webster language” and tries to the best of his ability to match the intentions of the playwright.
The playwright, John Webster, was one of the greatest Jacobean dramatists and was also a contemporary of Shakespeare. T.S. Eliot once wrote, “Webster was much possessed by death, and saw the skull beneath the skin.”
According to Leslie, both Webster and Shakespeare wrote beautifully poetic plays and often drew attention to political matters, but Webster’s dialogue is faster and looser than Shakespeare’s. “It is also more concise [and] that is the beauty of it,” says Leslie.
Apart from Shakespeare, those who enjoy the fast-paced drama of Alfred Hitchcock or Quentin Tarantino, or the complexity found in Game of Thrones, may find The Duchess of Malfi just as enticing.
The Duchess of Malfi is presented by Ensemble Theatre Company from July 12 to August 15 at the Jericho Arts Centre. For more information, visit ensembletheatrecompany.ca.
