The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi stages—in its particular extreme and absurdist fashion—the process and fallout of restricting women’s autonomy. We imagined this production as a series of concentric nightmares—an ever-tightening claustrophobic space that closes around the Duchess as her brothers drive themselves to madness and murder in their control of her. For me, the heartbreak of the play lies not only in seeing the Duchess robbed of family, love, joy, and freedom, but also in the loss of humanity suffered by nearly every character wrapped up in her downfall.
