The Revenger’s Tragedy

“Fluidity and ferocious grace”
La Repubblica

Written by Thomas Middleton
Performed in Italian with surtitles
Running time approximately 2 hours with no interval
2018 –

For their first Italian production, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod chose The Revenger’s Tragedy by the Jacobean playwright Thomas Middleton. Intrigue, corruption, lust, narcissism and the thirst for power collide in a 17th century Italian court which seems strangely contemporary.

Seeking revenge at any cost for the murder of his fiancée, Vindice is drawn into a terrible helter-skelter of punishment which puts his very identity in crisis.

Produced by Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, co-produced by Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione in collaboration with Cheek by Jowl.

We are grateful to the Italian Cultural Institute for their contribution to The Revenger’s Tragedy in London.

Cast and creative team

Cast

2021

Name	Character
Marco Brinzi	Lussurioso
Fausto Cabra	Vindice
Flavio Capuzzo Dolcetta	Junior
Martin Chishimba	Jailer
Christian Di Filippo	Supervacuo
Raffaele Esposito	Ippolito
Ruggero Franceschini	Bishop
Errico Liguori	Spurio
Lucia Limonta	The Duchess
Marta Malvestiti	Castiza
David Meden	Ambitioso
Massimiliano Speziani	The Duke
Emilia Tiburzi	Doctor
Beatrice Verzotti	Gratiana
Marouane Zotti	Judge

2018-20

Name	Character
Ivan Alovisio	Lussurioso
Alessandro Bandini	Junior
Marco Brinzi	Judge
Fausto Cabra	Vindice
Martin Chishimba	Jailer
Christian Di Filippo	Supervacuo
Raffaele Esposito	Ippolito
Ruggero Franceschini	Bishop
Pia Lanciotti	The Duchess/Gratiana
Errico Liguori	Spurio
Marta Malvestiti	Castiza
David Meden	Ambitioso
Massimiliano Speziani	The Duke
Beatrice Vecchione	Doctor

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Italian version	Stefano Massini
Lighting	Judith Greenwood, Claudio De Pace
Music	Gianluca Misiti
Assistant Director	Francesco Bianchi
Movement	Alessio Maria Romano

Previous performances

Previous Performances

Date	Location
21-27 May 2021	Worldwide, Film Version Release from Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Italy
4-7 March 2020	London, Barbican, UK
22 February 2020	Milan, Piccolo Teatro, Italy
29-30 June 2019	Saint Petersburg, Theatre Olympics, Russia
7–8 February 2019	Pordenone, Teatro Verdi, Italy
22 January–2 February 2019	Rome, Teatro Argentina (Teatro di Roma), Italy
17–20 January 2019	Modena, ERT Teatro Storchi, Italy
10–13 January 2019	Bologna, ERT Arena del Sole, Italy
12–16 December 2018	Florence, Teatro della Pergola, Italy
4–6 December 2018	Pavia, Teatro Fraschini, Italy
29–30 November 2018	Lugano, Lugano LAC, Switzerland
20–25 November 2018	Turin, Teatro Stabile, Italy
10 October –16 November 2018	Milan, Piccolo Teatro, Italy

Cancelled Performances 2020-21

Date	Location
2020-21	Milan, Piccolo Teatro, Italy
2020-21	Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France
2020	Madrid, Centro Dramático Nacional, Spain

Reviews

UK

“A blackly comical delight… This elegantly perverse, beautifully barbed evening is a big success.”
The Times

“A bravura staging.”
Telegraph

“A bold, uproarious, unabashed, sexy extravaganza of power and corruption… The company is enthralling.”
Telegraph

Italy

“The Piccolo has achieved an outstanding result, and one at an international level. Donnellan is a magical director and a master of movement and action. The actors embody the absolute fusion of mind and body, full of life and giving life.”
Avvenire

“Donnellan embraces the language of Theatre in its entirety, a theatre which transcends speech and becomes breath and movement.”
Due Righe

“Donnellan’s powerful production allows the shadows of Strehler and Ronconi to vanish from the Piccolo.”
Corriere della Sera

“Delivered with fluidity and ferocious grace’, ‘a clear vision playing with contrasts, highlighting the dark opulence of his multi-personality imagination’, ‘Donnellan knows how to read the classics in the spirit of the times while never constraining them”
La Repubblica

“Dextrous interweaving of satire and tragedy’, ‘Magnificent direction with exceptional design, lighting, costumes and actors”
Il Giornale

“Declan Donnellan reveals this lavish, decadent, perverse world in a frenetic astonishing dance.”
La Lettura/Corriere della Sera

“Donnellan recognises the eternity of feelings and desires, and imbues his actors with extraordinary freedom.”
Cult Week

“Donnellan has created a production of unusual lightness, a ferocious comedy always surging forward. The Revenger’s tragedy, for all its imagery and elegance, is destined to mature in the imagination and return to haunt us with its elegance, refinement and thoughtfulness.”
Sipario

“A brilliant production, Donnellan knows how to play Middleton’s wit in a contemporary key, fresh and with veiled references to our society.”
Milano Free

“Donnellan magnificently conveys 17th Century English theatre to a contemporary audience”
Milano Teatri

“A breath of fresh air for Milanese theatre.”
Saltinaria.it

“The Revenger’s tragedy is astounding. Go and see it, because in the midst of the cutting irony, you will touch on limits of vice and perversity which only the human race is capable of crossing. Now and as it was then, century after century.”
cahierdesarts.com