'IT IS AN ACTOR'S STAGE, A WRITER'S STAGE, IT IS A SPACE WHERE WRITERS, ACTORS AND DIRECTORS CAN ACTUALLY UNLEASH THEIR IMAGINATION'

I have just seen (and I highly recommend) 'The Revenger's Tragedy', and it was so fabulous! It was truly fantastic. In my opinion the second act was much better than the first as it was the kind of opening that slowly drags you in, instead of just grabbing you; but still, twas amazing. The storyline, as simplified as I can get it, is about a dude (Vindice, played by 'Wild At Heart's Steven Tompkinson) whose fiance is murdered by the Duke. Shortly after this his father dies, which he attributes to the duke over-pressuring him. His heart now set on revenge he carries the skull of his dead lover with him always, and when his brother (amazingly played by Damian O'Hare) informs him of an oppotunity to work for the Duke's son, and thus get his revenge, he says 'Yay' and disguises himself as the fantastically flamboyant Piato. Piato has cool hair, a cane/sword, and the most annying voice, yet humorous speech.
Meanwhile the Duke's bastard son Spurio, is having an affair with the dukes wife, his step mother.
Piato is hired to get his sister to sleep with the Duke's son, although he is unable to persuade his sister (for which he thanks the stars) his mother is easily persuaded to prostitute her daughter. Later in the play Vindice and his brother attack their mother, although they do not kill her and everyone seems to beg forgiveness from everyone else.
The Duke (the same guy who played the naked dude in 'Veux Carret' (and was also nude in this play :( ew!)), is killed by being tricked into snogging the poisened skull of Gloriana (Vindice's dead fiance), how you would not notice you're kissing a skull I have no idea! But he does, and there's an awful lot of stage blood.
The Duke's son tricks his step brothers (of which their are three) and has one of them killed by the orders of the other two. Don't worry, the dude fully deserved to die, he raped a woman who later killed herself, her husband (at the end, when everyone is dead) takes the crown.
The final scene leaves only three characters alive, and a lot of bodies onstage. A jolly, jacobean tragedy.


But it was bloody good! It was so fabulously directed by Jonathon Moore, modernising in a way that didn't kill the language, and didn't detract from the play. It was truly brilliant. And very Brecht. There was a type of educational value in this play, using the tech' box as the Gods, and the fabulous character that had been cut. All wonderful uses of the verfremdungseffekt. It was kind of one of those plays where you really have to see it because description just doesn't do it justice, but it was FABULOUS!