Love, murder and control of women
The Changeling
(out of 4) Written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Directed by Jackie Maxwell. Until Sept. 23 at the Tom Patterson Theatre, 111 Lakeside Dr., Stratford. StratfordFestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600 1989: the Tiananmen Square protests made headlines around the world, Rain Mantook Best Picture at the Oscars, Taylor Swift was born, and the Stratford Festival produced Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s Jacobean tragedy The Changeling.
It didn’t do so again until this spring.
The reason for the absence of this well-known play, written in 1622 by two of Shakespeare’s biggest contemporaries? The program notes argue it’s Middleton’s darker, bluer portrayal of sex and power, which failed to match the popularity of the Bard. But the festival is paying tribute now with its first production of The Changeling (or any of Middleton’s plays) in almost 30 years
(Another this season, Timon of Athens, is attributed to both Middleton and Shakespeare.)
Director Jackie Maxwell brings the time frame from the 1600s to the 1930s, during the late stages of the Spanish Civil War. Comedy takes a back seat to sinister plotting and abhorrent actions. The sexual manipulation and corruption in the play resonate with today’s cultural debate around control over and demonization of women’s sexual agency.
When Beatrice-Joanna (Mikaela Davies) meets Alsemero (Cyrus Lane), the two immediately fall in love (or lust). At the same moment, Beatrice-Joanna is betrothed by her father Vermandero (David Collins) to the wealthy Alonzo de Piracquo (Qasim Khan) for political reasons.
Desperate to end her engagement, she enlists her father’s servant De Flores (Ben Carlson) — who loves her, but whom she detests because of his facial deformity and general creepiness — to kill Alonzo. BeatriceJoanna is now free to marry Alsemero but is unexpectedly bound to De Flores by their mutually evil deeds.
Meanwhile, in an asylum, Antonio (Gareth Potter) fakes lunacy to get closer to the wife of a doctor, Isabella (Jessica B. Hill), who’s being watched by her husband’s hospital assistant, the militant fool Lollio (Tim Campbell). The guarding and policing of female sexuality is persistent throughout The Changeling, which is especially heightened by the wartime setting.
Antonio tries to use his wit to get to Isabella but is overpowered by Lollio’s brute force, which is always threatening to turn on Isabella herself. And Beatrice-Joanna’s proximity to the war — Camellia Koo’s set suggests the action is surrounded by the physical ruins of war — may be a better explanation of her inclination toward murder to solve her problems and take control of her life.
Though she praises Middleton’s “contemporary psychology” in her program notes, Maxwell’s direction seems to go only halfway with this approach, letting the malevolent dealings of Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores come seemingly from their natural personalities and not as a product of their surroundings.
(Middleton doesn’t share a contemporary psychology around the representation of physical or mental differences as evil or depraved, or sexual women as “whores,” which this production doesn’t feel the need to address or manage.)
The title The Changeling refers to the many transformations that oc- cur within the characters in moral standing, presentation of identity and power, but there’s no major shift in this production, just a deepening.
As the villains, Davies and Carlson experience no trepidation or loss of nerve before committing actions they can’t reverse. With such rotten cores, there’s never any doubt as to where the play will end up.
It’s dark and salacious, but not entirely dynamic. Unfortunately, this Middleton is rather middling.