The Spanish Tragedy

Synopsis

Betrayal, double dealing, illicit love affairs and unimaginable violence. Kyd's fascinating Jacobean revenge drama has all the ingredients of a modern thriller.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 21 October 2009

Blood will have blood, and there’s tons of it in Thomas Kyd’s famous 1592 Elizabethan shocker, though Mitchell Moreno’s Arcola production is severely bowdlerized and a bit gloomy.

This Spanish Tragedy, in fact, is more like a Spanish omelette, full of incomprehensible jabbering between the courts of Spain and Portugal while the hero Hieronimo – played by that excellent, but here rather subdued, actor, Dominic Rowan – stalks his enemies to revenge his son, who has been stabbed and garroted (upside down) in the arbour.

He is aided by an ever-present Ghost (Francis Ortega) and an allegorical figure of Revenge, here played for no very good reason by a sweet little axe-wielding girl. There are some wonderful character studies that don’t get the full swagger they deserve, though Keith Bartlett is a suitably tough amd grizzled King of Spain and Patrick Myles a faintly satanic Lorenzo.

Murder follows murder in the s...

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Latest User Review

Bazza - 10 November 2009:

I saw the play last night.This magnificent production is what makes theatre going worthwhile.They have taken a pretty damn good play and improved upon it bigtime. The cast are highly quality with Dominic Rowan giving a brilliant performance. If the WOS reviewer found it full of "incomprehensible jabbering" I suggest he concentrates a little more on what he is watching. Please do not be put off by his review....

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