Women Beware Women

A Woman. A Wife: Married in secret and locked away from other eyes by her new husband.

Another Woman. Another Wife. A Daughter: Pressed into marriage and duped into her uncle’s bed.

A third Woman. A Widow. An Aunt. A Sister: Knows how to operate in a man’s world.

How do you navigate a society in which women are consciously and unconsciously commodified, coerced and controlled?

Thomas Middleton is often thought to have collaborated with Shakespeare on some of his later works, but as a prolific playwright in his own right, he was no stranger to writing bespoke plays for the private indoor theatres. Women Beware Women is his enduringly relevant exploration of gender power dynamics that uncovers the savage underbelly of desire, lust and ambition through the prism of the flamboyant Florentine court.

Oh, the deadly snares

That women set for women,

without pity

Either to soul or honour!

— Act V, scene 2

At the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as part of the Globe winter season.