Nottingham Playhouse is to stage one of the most celebrated plays of the Jacobean era, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.
The theatre’s associate director Fiona Buffini directs this “blood-soaked masterpiece” in which a secret marriage provokes fury, espionage and bloody murder.
She said, “The Duchess of Malfi shows us human beings at their most corrupt and their most noble—it’s both a love story and a nightmare, a dark view of the world and an inspiration.”
Beatriz Romilly, who played Joan of Arc in Henry VI – The Trilogy and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, takes the title role.
The cast also includes Peter Bray (Delio), Patrick Brennan (The Cardinal), Steve Conlin (Roderigo / servant), Jim Findley (Castruccio / armed man), Lisa Howard (Cariola), Chris Jared (Ferdinand), Rebecca Sarker (Julia), Jamie Satterthwaite (Antonio), Matthew Wait (Bosola) and Chris Wollaton (Silvio / doctor).
Designer is Neil Murray and lighting design is by Mark Jonathan. Composer is Jon Nicholls and Philip D’Orléans is fight director.
The Duchess of Malfi runs from Friday 30 October until Saturday 14 November. Press night will be on Tuesday 3 November.