The Changeling

By Rachel Fentem
Publication date: 16/10/2007

By Rachel Fentem

Before a line has been spoken in English Touring Theatre’s latest production, The Changeling, an ominous tone has been set by the looming set, a cross between an early-20th century asylum and a prison: tall brick walls, windows covered in wire mesh, and heavy iron doors. It is equally suitable for the increasingly dark ‘aristocratic’ scenes, typical of Jacobean revenge tragedy and penned by Thomas Middleton, and the more disturbing than comic ‘madhouse’ scenes, the work of the lesser-known William Rowley.

The Changeling Beatrice-Joanna is in love with Alsemero, and in order to fulfil her desires with him, enlists DeFlores, a hated servant, to dispatch with her father’s chosen suitor, Piracquo. DeFlores demands payment in kind - Beatrice-Joanna’s virginity - and continues to demand her body as the pair become ever more steeped in blood.

Middleton and Rowley’s script is inherently dramatic, with frequent asides to the audience and rapid inter-cutting of scenes and locations. It is surprising then, that the acting is at times a little lack lustre, though this is still on the whole a gripping piece of theatre. Anna Koval as Beatrice-Joanna is rather screechy, but presents a fascinatingly ambiguous character: are we to pity her desperate situation, or condemn her lust and selfishness?

The sexual and physical violence is hardly lightened by the asylum scenes, for a modern audience can’t fail to flinch at the attitudes to and treatment of the ‘madmen and fools’ presented here. Their dance rehearsal for Beatrice-Joanna’s wedding celebrations is quite grotesque, yet by the end of the play when two characters have been revealed as impostors, we realise we have seen no ‘true’ madmen, merely caricatures.

As the plot careers towards its inevitable, bloody conclusion, it is the wife of the governor, Isabella (a sensitive and intelligent portrayal by Marianne Oldham) who represents morality through her fidelity. The contrast between her relatively humble uprightness and the pride, disdain and bloody downfall of Beatrice-Joanna provides a vivid visual and moral finale to the play.

The Changeling continues at the Arts Theatre until Sat 20 Oct

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The Changeling

The Changeling Theatre An ominous tone has been set by the looming set Bury St Edmunds Cambridge Ely Huntingdon-St Ives Newmarket Royston Saffron Walden St Neots