The Changeling

Synopsis

The Changeling is set in a world of lords and fools where the line between the two is fine. The beautiful Beatrice, driven by her secret lust, enlists the help of her father's servant. But 'honest' Deflores, ugly as sin, drives a harder bargain than she expected. As it changes from bleak tragedy to black farce, 'The Changeling' tells a tale of sex, lies and animal passions. Mayhem is commonplace.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 3 February 2012

Joe Hill-Gibbins’ cracking new up-tempo, modern dress production of the 1622 Jacobean shocker The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley gives a whole new meaning to the term “cupboard love.”

Ultz’s design is a reconfiguration of the square, functional Maria studio as a B and Q warehouse, the audience at ground level seated behind plywood fencing, as in a corrida, with actors concealed in cupboards and boxes in the Spanish castle and mobile cages in the lunatic asylum.

In a skilfully edited version of the full text – no feeble butchery as at the Southwark Playhouse recently – the parallel plots of sexual deceit and possession are gloriously entwined at the wedding feast, where the pageant of madmen and fools embraces everyone in a brilliant rap dance version of the Mendelssohn march (choreography by Maxine Doyle).

Miraculously, eight actors cover all bases, leaving the wonderful [Je...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 9 February 2012:

If you want to experience suffering for art spend a couple of hours on a wooden bench as the Young Vic allows another director to butcher a great classical play. After Ian Rickson's atrocious Hamlet Joe Hill-Gibbins has attempted to cram Thomas Middleton's The Changeling into less than two hours. Savage cuts to the text have made it partially incomprehensible but he has chosen to retain the barely connected sub-plot, apparently by William Rowley but almost identical to Madness in Valencia, which gives Middleton's far better play even less room to breathe. So, when Beatrice-Joanna enlists the scurvied De Flores to bump off her intended bridegroom her true love simply pops up at the wedding in his place. And, although De Flores violently relieves her of her chastity she seems inexplicably willing to subject herself to him whilst substituting her maid on her wedding night to convince her husband that her virginity is still intacta. Confused? - you will be as they used to say on Soap. Add some risible nonsense with jelly and trifle representing sexual passion and suicide (really!) plus a wedding feast mimed to Beyonce (really!!!) and you have a directorial conceit spiralling out of control. It's also unforgiveable that much of the play is obscured by props or ill-conceived blocking; the finale was invisible behind a large table. Jessica Raine (who seems to have become very thin) is impressive as the tragic anti-heroine but some of the supporting cast are far less assured; the usually excellent Henry LLoyd-Hughes doesn't seem to have a clue what his two characters are meant to be contributing to the piece. The Young Vic seems to be trying to base itself on the European model as a director's theatre (remember I Am the Wind - far, far worse), but they really need to tell them to check their egos at the door....

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