The Revenger’s Tragedy (La tragedia del vendicatore): Middleton (trans. Massini): Barbican Arts Centre, London: to March 7th 2020: 4****. Mark Courtice
The Revenger’s Tragedy (La tragedia del vendicatore)
Thomas Middleton (translated Stefano Massini) adapted by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod
Performed in Italian with English surtitles
Presented by the Barbican, Cheek by Jowl and Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, in a co-production with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione.
4****
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
4th – 7th March 2020 19.45
Pre-show talk for members, Fri 6 Mar 6pm, Fountain Room
Weekend Lab, Sat 7 – Sun 8 Mar 2020
Age guidance 16+ (sexual content and strong violence)
020 7638 8891 tickets@barbican.org.uk
Running time 2 hours and 15 minutes, no interval
@Reviewsgate
Review Mark Courtice 5th March 2020
Cheek by Jowl have teamed up with Piccolo Teatro di Milano on this new Italian version of Middleton’s play; it’s both vicious and riotous. From the opening vision of capering grotesques moving across the front of the stage to the ending where everyone is murdering everyone else, it zips along with scarcely a pause for breath, let alone a chance to think, which doesn’t make it any easier to follow the complicated plot. As to that, it’s a tangled interweaving of betrayal, corruption, murder and horror. Although the tragedy for Vindice (the avenger) is that he must die in his turn, his own worst enemy, the journey to this realisation is always brutal, often very funny.
The acting is vital, energetic and full blooded. With names like Lussurioso it’s easy to assume that characters must be played in one dimension, but here the performances are very skilled. Fausto Cabra is splendid, investing Vindice with a rich mixture of rage, shame and frustrated morality. Pia Lanciotti plays both the light-skirt Duchess and Vindice’s compromised mother, this double performance underlining that there is more than one way to be a bad parent. A lovely double act between David Meden and Christian Di Filippo as Ambizioso and Supervacuo combines physicality and comic bone-headed villainy.
Everything takes place in front of a blood red wooden wall, from which scenes emerge (often stage managed by Vindice, creatively using smoke, skulls, corpses and skeletons as props). The English surtitles aim for a sort of renaissance tone, translated from an Italian version of an original English text, a long journey which leads to some delightful variations on the original. The production standards are very high, the look of the production consistently blood-spattered. The lively music is apt. Modern dress reminds us that this isn’t just an historical curiosity.
Director: Declan Donnellan
Design: Nick Ormerod
Lighting: Judith Greenwood, Claudio De Pace
Music: Gianluca Misiti
Assistant Director: Francesco Bianchi
Movement: Alessio Maria Romano
Cast
Lussurioso: Ivan Alovisio
Judge: Marco Brinzi
Vindice: Fausto Cabra
Junior: Flavio Capuzzo Dolcetta
Supervacuo: Christian Di Filippo
Ippolito: Raffaele Esposito
Bishop: Ruggero Franceschini
The Duchess/Graziana: Pia Lanciotti
Spurio: Errico Liguori
Castizia: Marta Malvestiti
Ambizioso: David Meden
The Duke: Massimiliano Speziani
Doctor: Beatrice Vecchione
Jailer: Marouane Zotti