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:

16 May 2006

Cheek by Jowl begin a most welcome three-year residency at the Barbican with a stunning modern dress production of The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, a Jacobean shocker of sex and violence last seen at the National in a sumptuous Goya-esque staging by Richard Eyre in 1988.

Declan Donnellan’s approach is more intense and clinical. He and designer Nick Ormerod have closed down the Barbican auditorium, placing cast and audience on the stage in a new configuration not dissimilar to that of the new Trafalgar Studios, alas.

But the scheme (apart from the uncomfortable seating) works brilliantly for this play. We observe these over-heated creatures tearing each other apart as if witnesses in a laboratory. In Alicante, a merchant of Valencia, Alsemero (Tom Hiddleston), desires the governor’s daughter, Beatrice Joanna (Olivia Williams), whose servant, De Flores (Will Keen), despatches her fiancé in order to seduce her himse...

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Latest User Review

193.237.245.218) - 31 May 2006:

I've acted in this play and seen it before, but never to this standard of gripping ensemble acting with a superlative female lead. Yes the setting is modern, but it's an absolute pleasure to report that nothing in the text is sent-up or post-modernised. So don't be hung-up by those red chairs; essentially it's straight-down-the line Jac Trag as it should be done but rarely is -- hence worth seeing more than once as I now intend to do. But I will indeed bring a cushion next time. On a final note, the reduced space works well, but what a downer to see the proper seating in the Barbican Theatre dark and unused. ...

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