The Duchess of Malfi
Almeida Theatre, London

One common way of freshening old plays is modern dress. So, in Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of John Webster’s 1613 revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, the widowed aristocrat of the title and her brother, Duke Ferdinand, look togged up for a smart London drinks party.

Bizarrely, though, the Duke’s brother, the Cardinal, also wears cocktail clothes, even though cardinals did not, then or now, dress like other men. Their outfits are not modern, but ancient, which is the point, the blood scarlet robes representing continuity and distinctiveness. By making the Cardinal his brother’s black-suited sartorial twin, the production loses the visual shock, which Webster surely intended, of the scenes in which the prelate commits calumny, adultery or murder.