The Revenger's Tragedy Workshop - Blog - Adam Boyle

Day 1 of the R&D started with us all talking about our first interpretations of the play. What stood out most to me was everyone’s reaction to the extreme levels of misogyny, and how that collided with the play’s farcical nature—its quick pace and those very on-the-nose character names almost commedia dell’arte in style. 

I also referenced the Church of Bones in Naples, where people are given skulls to care for, believing it brings them luck, a possible link to Gloriana’s skull?

Reading Act 1. I was struck by how many shared lines there are—this constant overlap adds to the chaos, the franticness of everyone trying to get a word in. Death and revenge dominate, and the language around misogyny felt tied to “nature,” as if the characters believed women’s supposed inferiority was a fact of the natural world. Playing the first court scene, I was surprised at how stuck the Duke felt for someone of such high status. The whole family seemed shaken by the law, unsure how to navigate a changing world that no longer guaranteed their power.

Day 2 we began by breaking down the Duke’s death—How to Kill a Duke 101. What struck me wasn’t just the planning but how much of it felt improvised. Spending 9 years waiting for an in and is just winging it from there?

Later, the Castiza/Mother/Vindice scene hit hard. I was reminded of adult conversations with my own mother about how when things were really bad she would often go without eating to feed us, and even resulting to shop lifting etc to put food on the table. But even with how dire it was, I and my siblings were completely unaware of the situation. My reading of the scene really highlighted a struggling mother who herself saw the only option presented infront of her, and Vindice being witness to the deception of their social and financial status.

We ended by building How to Kill Everyone Else, this time just playing it through. The chaos, the constant toppling of dukes, the masked dances—it all tipped into the absurd.