Sucker for heartbreak

If im honest upon reading it the first time I wasn’t immediately loving the white devil, having done duchess and tis pity before I think for some reason it felt a little big and convoluted in comparison. Getting it up on its feet a little and hearing some great voices at play in the room it definitely changed my mind. I suppose what struck me is actually despite the quite epic scenes there is so much scope for intimacy and heart break. I really loved that scene yesterday when Isabella reunites with Bracchiano and it’s just them two on the stage, with us the audience knowing the context of his betraying her, and it was so impactful watching her try to reach him and him swatting her away. Maybe it’s not useful to compare but it reminded me a lot of Portia and Brutus which is one of my favourite scenes in Julius Caesar (sucker for heartbreak), and in a similar vein the scene later on with Vittoria and Bracchiano too. They really stand out when separated from some of the more epic scenes like the courtroom/ the gun rouse at the end. I suppose to summarise my first read it felt like three very separate plays where’s yesterday with a little colour it felt like a proper trilogy (which leads to my new image attached at the bottom, apologies again for forgetting it yesterday). 

Another thing that came up in a conversation at the pub afterwards was the tv show Succession, which made me think about how that show does something so good at making you care for people who are habitually quite unlikeable. I felt that about particularly Frank and Bracciano, maybe it’s the way they were being spoken but I thought it’s a nice touch, again maybe not great to compare but a bit like Ferdinand in duchess; there’s a lot of darkness to him but also something so piteously helpless. It made me think rather than cutting the love subplot with Frank it’s perhaps worth exploring to show the human behind him, but who knows. 

I think what I’d find useful in an r&d for example is a real world building exercise. Exploring these characters in an improvisation kind of fashion sneaking around, playing with light and dark, heat and cold, status with other characters, the type of music that might be around them just to get a real sense of what it is like to be the world and whether that changes through the acts. I think getting the atmosphere would certainly unlock something for me to engage with the play even more.

Bailey Brook