Women, Beware the Devil

When: 25th March, 2023 (Matinee)

Where: Almeida Theatre, London

Writer: Lulu Raczka

Director: Rupert Goold

I don't really know where to start with this one. It was such an interesting production that has loads to explore.

In general I enjoyed this play, it was quirky and interesting, a bit different to the sorts of things I usually see. The acting was really strong, with each character clearly holding their own characteristics and nuances. I particularly felt Lydia Leonard and Alison Oliver, playing Elizabeth and Agnes were brilliant in the portrayal of their characters. I also loved the style of the piece, it was dark and moody, but at the same time infused with lots of humour. The use of direct address, especially during the devil's prologue added another layer to it, giving it a slight shakespeare-esque feel about it, but with very contemporary language and topics, giving the audience a great sense of connection to the play. I would have liked to have seen this used more throughout the piece. The set was really fun as well, using exaggerated perspective to show a long hall, the use of the doors to show changing rooms and the way the actors played around the space showing 2 places at the same time within the same space was fun and really effective.

In advance I didn't know much but from what I had heard it wasn't that good of a play and was just a bit weird. If anything I didn't think it was weird enough. The first half was brilliant, it set up the story really well, and they were creating some really interesting character dynamics. In the interval it felt like it had just reached the point that all hell was about to break loose and I was excited to see the weirdness. However, the second half lost its way a little, getting lost in an abyss of the Civil War and the king and began to lose the story of witchcraft and hysteria that it had introduced so wonderfully in the first half. Whilst I didn't hate it I couldn't tell what the writer was trying to tell us, was this a play about witchcraft as it had presented in the beginning or was it a play about war? Now you could say that these themes link together, that the witchcraft was simply one aspect of a much bigger theme, such as war or injustice, Yet, if this was the case, the way in which it was presented in the beginning at least for me felt misleading.

I have actually purchased the script for this one as I'm really interested to look at the play further and try and explore deeper the intentions of the writer. I definitely don't think this is a bad play and in fact I think this is a play I will be thinking about for a while. I'm really glad I got to see it and I kind of want to see more of this sort of thing coming up on London stages.

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