Even if you never studied Jacobean drama, you might know John Webster. He pops up as a character in "Shakespeare in Love," the nasty teen who fondles rats and betrays poor Will at a crucial moment. Tom Stoppard gave a quick tip of the playwright's cap in his script to the man who would write some of the most gruesome plays in an era very fond of gore upon the boards.
Director John Kaufmann has been considering Webster's personality over the past six week as he rehearses Webster's most famous play. "The Duchess of Malfi" is about a family that zips right past dysfunctional to horrific. The production opens on Friday, March 23, at Open Circle Theatre.
"As I watch this show and think about what the author must have been like, he reminds me of Quentin Tarantino. The play is not all doom and gloom, there's humor and levity just all coming from a very dark place," said Kaufmann.
First performed in 1614 at the Globe, "The Duchess of Malfi" tells of a famous murder case. A noble young widow marries a man of lesser social status. Offended by her choice and motivated by greed for her inheritance, her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal exact their bloody revenge in a way that destroys the entire family.
RUNNING TIME
Webster's full script, replete with stabbings, stranglings, a poisoned Bible and a touch of lycanthropy, takes about four hours to perform. For a modern audience, Open Circle artistic director Ron Sandahl decided to cut the running length in half while keeping the first werewolf to ever appear in the theater and other notable Webster elements. Through a series of coffee house meetings, Sandahl and Kaufmann debated what should go and what had to stay.
"Ron was the dramaturge on this, saying you can't cut that line, people will expect it, it's like cutting the To Be or Not To Be speech from Hamlet," recalled Kaufmann. "He was very careful to keep his adaptation true to the spirit of Webster."
In remarks on the OCT Web site, Sandahl stated that he wanted to "retain almost all of Webster's amazing language."
Despite the fact that they were cutting half the running time, the task was easier than expected.
"There's many moments where the characters repeat themselves. Sometimes, they are essentially saying the same thing three or four times, so we just picked the best speech and kept that," said Kaufmann.
A greater challenge was turning the play, with its 25 characters, into something that could be handled by nine actors in a company with a very small budget.
"Ron's adaptation really let the action flow and turned it into a great ensemble piece," said Kaufmann. "Of course, because they are playing multiple characters, some of the actors get to die twice in the evening."
A few characters also swapped genders to accommodate the cast available, which gave some interesting twists to the material. Antonio, the noble steward beloved by the Duchess, has a confidant, another servant. "In the play, it's a man but here the character is played by woman," said Kaufmann. So the relationship almost borders on unrequited love when Antonio seeks his friend's help. "There's a moment when he's talking and she just gives him this look, it's so sad."
However, the main villain, Ferdinand, stays a nobleman, a guy with some serious personality problems.
"He's probably everyone's favorite character-he just hits all the weird cylinders. There's this moment where he brings his sister this severed hand and I'm watching the actor just standing there, grinning because Ferdinand is enjoying this so much, tormenting her, and it is just creepy!"
The theatricality of Webster's script allowed Kaufmann to use an off-beat set. "It's a very traditional look, but our inspiration was a fairy-tale. There's a sense of the woods creeping in, like a very dark Hieronymus Bosch illustration of that tale," said Kaufmann.
Webster's play also set up some real technical challenges for the company. "There's a scene where the Duchess is confronted by these wax figures of her husband and children-she thinks they're real and they've been hung-that her brother has set up to trick her," said Kaufmann. "And then there's this madman scene that's been really tricky for me-I wanted all the crazy rantings to work in a context that made sense to both the play and the audience."
EXTRA TIME
A big help in getting the play to come together was a longer than usual rehearsal time. "We were able to stretch out the rehearsal process over six weeks and give people a little bit of a break," said Kaufmann. Like most small theaters, his actors have day jobs. The occasional rest from murdering each other all evening made it easier on everyone.
Kaufmann expects that audiences will enjoy "The Duchess of Malfi" as much as he has. After all, the play has been a hit for more than 400 years.
"The Jacobean plays deliver the goods," he concluded. "Physical comedy and brutal murder never go out of fashion."
"The Duchess of Malfi" plays Friday, March 23, through April 21, at Open Circle, 429 Boren Ave. N. For more information, see octheater.com or call 382-4250.
Rosemary Jones writes about arts and entertainment in the Capitol Hill Times. She can be reached at editor@ capitolhilltimes.com.
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