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I recently participated in a staged reading of the White Devil by John Webster, courtesy of Lazarus Theatre Company, and it was an absolute pleasure to tackle such a dense, knotty, twisty piece of classic theatre within a room of eager, insightful and knowledgeable creatives. The reading unfolded with a focus on the text, which allowed each thought to land, and though each actor read with script…
The White Devil began as a play where I found it difficult to understand the language. It took 2-3 reads before the R&D to make sense of it. I still had many questions that needed clarity. However, throughout the day, many questions were answered and the play was more entertaining than how I envisaged it. Certainly more entertaining and with elements humour than how I had read it initially - which…
I was really excited for the reading of John Webster’s ‘White Devil’. Having previously worked with ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, I was familiar with Websters style of politically charged writing, filled with corruption, passion and deceit and I was itching to get my teeth stuck into it! Before the workshop I deep dived into the context and themes of the play, this is a part of the process I really…
What struck me most about our journey through exploring The White Devil was just how despicable these characters are, but how it didn’t really land until the very end of the play, when there was time to look back and take stock. I mean the clue was in the title, but when the play opens with mentions of murders on the first page, and the characters response being that it was okay because they were…
The canon gets darker. That's what's always been told to me about the progression of writing in the Early Modern period. I've found it to be true, certainly with 2023's The Changeling and also looking at The Revengers Tragedy last year - revisiting the play that introduced me to Lazarus in 2015. But what really struck me about this week's reading of the The White Devil was just how funny it was.…
My recent experience working with the Lazarus Theatre Company allowed me to time travel four hundred years into the past. Our reading of The White Devil was intimate, and one that unfolded with a thoughtful, steady energy that invited everyone in. The focus settled naturally on the actors and the language, and that simplicity made the experience feel personal. It was a refreshing coming together…
The White Devil is a seriously complicated play. As Ricky, the wonderful Artistic Director of LTC made clear by the end of the day, it’s like three plays that have been jammed into one. Now; one could certainly come to the conclusion that adapting such a play would be an exercise in futility, due to its labyrinthian plot and dynamic tonal shifts, yet attempting to figure out this theatrical puzzle…
After too long away it was exciting to reconnect with the good people at Lazarus Theatre and join their Engine room for an exploration of John Webster’s labyrinthine revenge thriller ‘The White Devil’. The actors and creatives gathered in Lazarus’ brand new workspace to read and begin to unpack this beast of a play. The word ‘beast’ is appropriate here as one of the first things the reading…
Working on ‘The White Devil’ with Lazarus was fantastic. Coming into the day I was nervous but excited. I'd worked previously on ‘The Revengers Tragedy’, which I greatly enjoyed. A wild play, that we had a brilliant time getting into. So I knew it would be another great experience, with some phenomenal creatives in the room. And that turned out to be true. We got straight into the text reading an…
