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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

'Duchess of Malfi' brings tragedy to center stage

Jason Craig West and Ryan Claus play Bosola and Ferdinand in IU Theatre's production of "The Duchess of Malfi. "'The Duchess of Malfi" hits the stage Febuary 3 at the Wells-Metz Theatre. 

The show begins with a series of vignette scenes playing out on the floor of the Wells-Metz Theatre.

The Duchess of Malfi, the show’s widow protagonist, moves silently among some of the other characters, including her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal. She moves from one side of the stage to the other in her deep red gown, interacting wordlessly as the opening score plays.

The macabre, tragic play opens to the public at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 in the Wells-Metz, with senior Emily Sullivan taking on the role of the Duchess.

Sullivan said the Duchess is relatable in an interesting way.

“I kept wondering if I was doing something wrong because it felt relatively easy to access,” Sullivan said. “Of course, you know, I was and still am doing some things wrong, and I’m improving on those things. She obviously has flaws, as does everyone, but I find her to be very human and it’s not too far of a stretch to imagine how she feels.”

“The Duchess of Malfi,” a production play by John Webster in the early 1600s, revolves around a Duchess desiring to marry below her class and the tragic results of her choice.

Sullivan said she read the piece for the first time in professor Robert Fulk’s 17th century literature class.

“The majority of my training has been in classical work, mostly Shakespeare and whatnot, so I was aware of the show,” Sullivan said. “Working on it has been an entirely different monster. It’s emotionally 
exhausting.”

Though Sullivan said the process has been grueling, the value as a student of theater has been worth the efforts of producing the show.

“‘The Duchess of Malfi’ is an incredibly difficult play to perform, and we all knew going into the 
project that it would be difficult, but I don’t think we understood how difficult it would be,” Sullivan said. “The process has been exciting and exhausting, a very steep learning curve.”

Director Katie Horwitz is a friend, and Sullivan said she was excited to work with her on the production.

Horwitz, a third year master of fine arts student and director, said the challenges were not only those of character but of writing as well.

“The text of this show is both beautiful and difficult and the characters are wonderfully complex and theatrical, but that makes accessing them an incredible challenge,” Horwitz said. “On top of the language and character work, Webster wrote in not only many location changes, but time changes that we must try to make clear.”

One of the biggest hurdles in performing this show as the first of the spring semester is the break that comes in the middle of practice. Sullivan said the cast started working before the winter break, took time off and returned immediately to build on their progress.

The show is not only entertaining but a poignant statement in the face of some of the recent political changes in regards to both corruption and treatment of women.

“The desire to ignore and marginalize women’s bodies and to control them is very strong,” Sullivan said. “For better or for worse, it’s something that’s in the public eye. This show does a very interesting job of examining the desire to control and corruption and lust for power and lust in general — how that can distort people.”

Horwitz said the brothers in the show act as representatives of the “church” and “state,” both vying for command of the feminine body.

“We are currently dealing with a push back against feminism in our society,” Horwitz said. “Whenever progress is being made for a marginalized group, those against it will push back harder than before. Given our current political climate, it is incredibly important to tell stories that point to the issue that still exists, hundreds of years later, of female 
autonomy.”

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