Who, precisely, is the title character in Brave Spirits Theatre’s production of The Changeling, by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, is left open to interpretation. The text of the play speculates on the question but does not provide a definitive answer. Director Charlene V. Smith takes that tone of ambiguity and plays with it brilliantly in her approach to the script. She takes a late-Renaissance play that features violence, misogyny, and sexual assault as major plot elements, embraces it as an opportunity to address the subject, and handles it with both powerful creativity and sensitivity.
The Changeling tells the story of a young woman, Beatrice Joanna, betrothed to a man of her father’s choosing but who has fallen in love with another. To free herself, she persuades a servant, DeFlores, openly in love with her himself, to murder her fiancé. After the deed is done, however, he exacts a terrible price for his work, trapping her in a spiral of secrets and violence. Meanwhile, in a comic B-plot, two servants have snuck into a local asylum, posing as madmen, with the hopes of seducing the steward’s imprisoned wife.
Director Smith makes it clear from the beginning in her director’s note that there is a powerful message for a modern audience in this play. Says Smith, “This play is four hundred years old, yet every moment of it I recognize from my life, and from the lives of my friends. What did it mean to be staging it now as we once again asked women to publicly relive their trauma? What did it mean to ask audiences to watch a play about men’s physical and emotional subjugation of women while our own nation was once again showing women how little our pain counts…There are no easy answers. But what theatre asks us to do is witness…In this theatre, as part of this audience, you are agreeing to witness— together.”
This production delivers strong performances across the board, most notably in Musa Gurnis as the villain, DeFlores. The role marks her first time on the stage, but the power, confidence, and physicality she brings to an incredibly challenging role make that almost impossible to believe. Rebecca Speas and Steve Lebans, as Diaphanta and Alibius respectively, were masterful in their rapid character shifts from comic to dark, carrying each with skill. Likewise, Ryan Fields, as both pseudo-madman Fransiscus and servant Jasperino, in conjunction with Ben Peter as Alsemero, set a strong tone from the first moment they step on stage, foreshadowing the performances to come.
Danielle Scott is a force of nature as the protagonist, Beatrice Joanna, bringing both an earnestness, a power, and a fear that balance in her character at every moment. When paired with Smith’s direction and vision, the result is an arc that left me in tears. The sexual assault of Beatrice is done through metaphor, though no less brutal to watch, and leaves Scott covered in ashen handprints and bruises from the moment she is assaulted throughout the rest of the play. Her clothing, slowly removed from the beginning of the play onward, is used as a stand-in for herself as she watches in horror. At the end of the play, without spoiling it, the image comes to a conclusion that brings together the cast in a moment of restoration that is powerful to witness.
Production Dramaturg Claire Kimball makes a note that, from its stark contrast to the brutal main plot, modern productions of The Changeling often choose to remove the asylum subplot all together. For this production, it was kept, and while at times it was a neck-wrenching shift from the intensity of the main plot, it provided comic relief in moments of light-hearted playfulness. Much of this energy is brought by Puppetry Designer Genna Beth Davidson, whose puppets play the roles of the asylum inmates as well as imprisoned wife Isabella, played with sharp timing by Adrianne Knapp. Sound Design from Jordan Friend brought rim shots and trumpets to each and every punchline, telegraphing some of the more outdated jokes to a modern audience.
The set is blank, left as a black box, and the sleek, obliquely-modern costumes by Madeline Belknap, complemented that balance. Lighting Design, from Alex Brady, hit its stride in a scene performed in candlelight, as the lights gradually dimmed around the actors until only the light of their held candles remained, but at other times, it overreached, attempting significant mid-scene shifts despite only a few available instruments that left actors in unintended shadows and colors.
Brave Spirits Theatre’s The Changeling is a moving tale of the devastation both seen and felt in the trauma inflicted upon women. Smith’s creativity for telling the story of that trauma in a compelling and brutal way without subjecting its audience to scenes of sexual assault is a masterful work of art and is not to be missed. The Changeling is currently running in rep with The Duchess of Malfi, directed by Casey Kaleba.
Running Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission
The Changeling plays in repertory with The Duchess of Malfi at Brave Spirits through November 18, 2018 at The Lab at Convergence— 1819 N. Quaker Lane in Alexandria, VA. Tickets are available for purchase at the door or in advance online.
