The Duchess of Malfi

Our Review:

14 July 2010

Starkest East London: Punchdrunk and ENO slug it out inside a drab modern building. The promenade kings in a site-specific collision with grand opera. This is high-risk drama: could be great art or car crash. Immersive theatre merits an immersive review, so dip in anywhere.

…Shortcut for Punchdrunk regulars: The Duchess of Malfi starts like It Felt Like a Kiss, motors like Faust and ends like Masque of the Red Death writ large. We’re back to resin masks and DIY storytelling…

…We burrow into early rooms filled with computers, notebooks and detritus. Modern research labs with mock treatises on porphyria and lycanthropy (ah yes, Ferdinand; we mustn’t forget that John Webster’s play lurks here somewhere). Eerie noises but no live music yet…

…Rooms distort progressively as we’re tugged into the Jacobean past, even though we’re always aware of the monolithic present in this dead ...

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Latest User Review

dgr1 - 30 July 2010:

The joy of theatre - unlike film - is that everyone's experience of the same performance is slightly different, depending on seating / lighting / where you're looking when, etc. This takes that premise to its logical conclusion. Yes, you're always thinking there might be something better happening on another floor, but for the sheer joy of exploring and experiencing this is hard to beat. Punchdrunk's ambition, not to mention the design aesthetic, is peerless and, although I can admit I didn't follow the plot at all, really enjoyed the experience. Fabulous ending to tie it all up for everyone (unlike Faust, which was equally beautiful). It's nice to be excited by unique theatre, rather than seeing the same ideas again and again (Through a Glass Darkly v Polar Bears anyone?)...

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