The White Devil National Theatre 1991 - Review Headlines
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"A production that poses real questions about the nature of deprivation, power, lust, morality, religious corruption and sexual equality, as relevant today as it was in 1612. Compulsive viewing." |
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"Webster’s pessimistic vision is starkly captured and the play flows seamlessly, if slowly […] His spectacular set – evoking a ruined cathedral, dominated by a huge, burnished wrecking ball and littered with shattered religious tablets – is an elegant surrounding on which Webster’s feral characters sparkle like counterfeit jewels […]" |
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"[I]t may be that the very spectacular-ness of this production exposes The White Devil’s cold black-and-gold heart. Whatever the reason, this evening of expertly-achieved entertainment may somehow leave you cold too." |
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| "The White Devil is like a bad dream but without the vividness that makes a really good nightmare. It is like a tedious opera set to a rather good libretto which is proceeds to drown; under all the florid, self-admiring orchestration you can barely hear the melody. [...] But this is designer theatre, grand and sadistic but psychologically tame, where actors are only figures in a landscape and characters play second fiddle to costume." John Peter, ‘Confronting A Classic Problem’, The Sunday Times, 23 June 1991 |
| "[Prowse']s production also moves at so funereal a pace that it’s often hard to recall the plot is propelled by illicit passion…" Michael Arditti, ‘Grave Obsessions’, Evening Standard, 19 June 1991 |