THE CHANGELING Young Vic/Maria

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley knew exactly what a Jacobean audience liked and in 1622 they gave it to them in spades: a sensational and degenerate mix of lust, murder, madness, rape, arson, mutilation, virginity tests and bed-swapping. Beatrice-Joanna is in love with Alsemero, but engaged to marry Alonzo. She gets her father’s servant, the very ugly De Flores, whom she loathes, to murder Alonzo. Naively, she thinks he will accept a payment in cash and leave the country. Instead she finds he insists she becomes his whore. She is outraged, but forced to agree to avoid exposure. As he points out, a woman dipped in blood can no longer talk about her modesty. Joe Hill-Gibbons’ largely incoherent modern dress production is a mess and only really works during the wedding celebrations when DeFlores deflowers Beatrice-Joanna on the dinner table whilst the guests dance a conga.