The Ravenger's Tragedy

by Thomas Middleton

There was no warning of the start of the National's latest historic production, just a sudden wall of club music.  As the stage turns the actors dance, and strut, and fight and rape.... Rape?  Held down by a group of men a woman is clearly being raped as the party rages around her. I have no idea how it started when first premiered in 1605, but I thought this was a pretty startling opening.  There is nothing incidental about it either - the blood-letting of the next three hours all stems directly from that act.

It is all about sex and power, of course.  The rapist, a son of 'the Duke', the victim a virtuous woman who subsequently kills herself. Another family, led by the brothers Vindice (Rory Kinnear) and Hippolito (Jamie Parker) want revenge on the Duke and insinuate themselves into the entourage of his eldest son, the loathsome Lussurioso who (keep up there at the back) charges Vindice with securing him a virgin, who happens to be Vindice's sister. The Duke's other sons want to see Lussurioso out of the way, but accidentally kill the youngest, (who was the original rapist) the Duke's new wife is discovered having an affair with the Duke's bastard son and almost everyone ends up dead.

As you can tell from the very brief outline above, this is a tale of debauchery and lack of morals, with the revengers seemingly as immoral as everyone else. Indeed, just at the point of victory they too lose their lives. Over the past year the National has become very confident at borrowing some of the more fringe aspects of theatre, and just as with last year's Man of Mode, the fringe performances are almost as enjoyable as the protagonists speeches.  Everywhere is music (either period court or pounding drum and bass) acrobats, dancing and physical theatre. The look is sexy, colourful and hedonistic.  As a contemporary satire it must have been a devastating critique and unsurprisingly the play has been regularly banned. The programme suggests that it was a response to Hamlet, with Vindice probably played by the same actor as Hamlet the previous year, but to me this production comes across as pure and savage political comment.

Rory Kinnear is developing into a very good specialist at this era (I note his credits rarely stray earlier than 17th century) and some of his notes bear the hallmark of Simon Russell Beale (not a bad mentor).  I wouldn't say he has arrived yet, but potentially he could be the next great male British actor.  Otherwise he is supported by a strong cast, but only Barbara Flynn playing Vindice's mother caught the eye for her performance.  Otherwise it was the joy of a huge cast revelling in the gory fun of it all. Real theatre, exciting, intelligent, vibrant and with a bigger body count than most Hollywood films.  As my son would put it, what's not to like?

Return to reviews

Return to home page