Review: Women Beware Women, Golden Goose Theatre

These days, it feels like we’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of Jacobean tragedies coming out of the West End. As I walked into the Golden Goose Theatre to watch this play, my expectations for how deeply I would engage with it were uncertain. However, even as I write this review, I’m still left with the lasting impact that only a truly great play can have, working its magic long after the actors have taken their bows.

Women Beware Women, a play by Thomas Middleton, is a Jacobean tragedy that both turns the stomach and has you clutching it. It follows the lives of several women as they pass through the Duke of Florence’s court, sowing seeds of desire, discord, and betrayal in each other’s lives. The play explores how people reach for and exercise power, showing the cost it takes on our humanity. The heaviness of these themes is handled exceptionally by such a young cast, and the execution is made even stronger by confident and careful choices from Director and Co-Producer Mya Grace Kelln. I was particularly moved by the sensitivity with which the rape of Bianca is portrayed. Lani Blossom Perry’s portrayal of pain and anguish feels bottomless, while the other actors frame the stage, echoing her feelings of entrapment.

It might be assumed that these transgressions stem from a resentment on the part of the older characters – Livia and Guardiana – toward the innocence of youth, which is embodied in Bianca and Isabella. America Pike, as Livia, and Natasha Mula, as Guardiana, expose the absurdity of these characters’ scheming through their caricature-like portrayals, providing much-needed levity to balance the darker themes of the latter half of the play. Pike’s Livia has a slyness to her as she skulks across the stage, her eyes laser-focused on her next target.

In contrast, Mula’s Guardiana is more outward in her reactions, expressing her feelings directly to the audience in comical breaks through the fourth wall. Mula’s blend of modern mannerisms with immaculate delivery of sometimes clunky and convoluted Jacobean English is masterfully accomplished. Alongside Eliza Cameron as the Mother, she draws the eye, even during scenes where she is supporting the action.

The staging of the play is also unexpected. Plastic office chairs, situated in various formations, give the actors space on the stage for frequent physical comedy and help establish hierarchies between characters. Sean Farrell’s portrayal of the Ward – a silly and insecure young man engaged to Maria Potter’s Isabella – endears him to the audience through his frequent use of props to aid his bizarre and problematic schemes. Not to be forgotten, the minimalist yet inspired make-up and wardrobe make clear delineations between families, with different strokes of blue paint applied to the actors’ faces.

The spot-on casting, direction, set design, sound, and lighting weave the threads of the superb performances into a brilliant tapestry. As much as Middleton’s play portrays women as devious threats to society, Kelln’s interpretation adds dimension by reframing the capriciousness of the female characters and revealing the absurdity of their actions. By leaning fully into the dramedy of Middleton’s characters and plot, Kelln, alongside Movement and Intimacy Director Isabella Garland, infuses both the direction and dialogue with a tongue-in-cheek edge. 

Aptly following International Women’s Day, Women Beware Women may be a play about the fallacies of females, but this production is a play made for women, by women. All that’s left to say is that it truly was a pleasure to watch. Bravo.

Written by: Thomas Middleton
Directed by: Mya Grace Kelln
Movement and Intimacy Direction by: Isabella Garland
Lighting design by: Edward Tuke
Sound design by: Mya Grace Kelln
Fight choreography by: Alec Watson
Co-Produced by: Rachel Tutor, Mya Grace Kellyn
Light and Sound Operation by: Edward Tuke

Women Beware Women plays at Golden Goose Theatre until Saturday 15 March.