Women, Beware the Devil (Modern Plays)

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This production contains death, violence (including sexual violence), self-harm, guns, scenes of a sexual nature, strong language and the use of blood. It also includes haze, flashing lights and sudden loud noises. Recommended for ages 13+. Opera includes: The Handmaid’s Tale; The Winter’s Tale; Powder Her Face (ENO); The Knife of Dawn (Royal Opera House); Flux; Rush Hour 10: Motion (Southbank Sinfonia); Gazelle Twin & NYX (Ovalhouse/ Southbank Centre). Because of the way society works, women just see things differently, and they act differently. I was interested in exploring that.” Alison Oliver and Lydia Leonard in Women, Beware The Devil (Photo: Marc Brenner) Women, Beware the Devil is d irected byRupert Goold. Set design is byMiriam Buetherand costume design byEvie Gurney, with lighting design byTim Lutkin.Adam Corkis both sound designer and composer,and casting directorisAmy Ball.

Alison Oliver to star in ‘Women, Beware the Devil’ at the

Skewering audience anxieties… Callum Scott Howells and Rosie Sheehy as Romeo and Julie at the National. Photograph: Marc BrennerLulu Raczka’s Almeida debut manages to subvert so many things that it’s difficult to know where to start with a straightforward description of it. Being forced to write something that’s not your idea makes you more versatile,” she says. “Plus, I’m a TV obsessive, so I really love it. If you want to be a full-time writer, you can’t just work in theatre because you get paid, like, once every five years.” Dubheasa Lanipekun (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatremaker, filmmaker and photographer. In her lens-based practice she was most recently a Sundance Institute Fellow on the Ignite Programme with Adobe, winning a place with her debut short film Blue Corridor 15 (Dazed/ ICA/ BBC). Her work is motivated by finding the social truth within drama. She is interested in work which revolves around and interrogates the theme of liberation. Her practice is grounded in a deep interest in the politicised lives of people. A bad production at the Almeida is a rarity, all the more so when it’s directed by Rupert Goold. But modern morality tale Women Beware the Devil is bafflingly ill-pitched and dangerously undercooked. If Arthur Miller (often irked when the humour in his plays was overlooked) had decided to use witchcraft merely as the basis for a comedy with elements of magical realism, he might have written something like this beguiling new play. But Miller would have injected more rigour and discipline.

Women, Beware the Devil at the Almeida Theatre Glass reviews Women, Beware the Devil at the Almeida Theatre

This workshop is suitable for anyone wishing to develop as a playwright, and no previous experience is required. There’s a lot to enjoy - seductions and betrayals, temptations and terror. And there will be sex and violence!” So runs the flip opening spiel to this funny-peculiar effort by London-born Lulu Raczka, which ambitiously transports us to superstition-steeped 1640. Those lines are delivered by the Devil himself – chattily conspiratorial, horn-headed. You want a entertaining play that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, part satire, part comedy of manners, part supernatural thrillerAs Deputy Head of Wigs and Makeup: The Sound of Music (International tour); Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (West End).

WOMEN, BEWARE THE DEVIL Almeida Theatre thespyinthestalls WOMEN, BEWARE THE DEVIL Almeida Theatre thespyinthestalls

Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea, Carly-Sophia Davies, Aurora Dawson-Hunte, and Lola Shalam. Photo: Marc Brenner In Women, Beware the Devil, that evil shows itself in the role of Elizabeth, who as a noblewoman is barred from owning property, or making a life for herself – so she shamelessly manipulates her brother into doing what she wants. ENJOY the play – it’s pretty long .” With these words, the Devil (charmingly played by Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea) ends his prologue and opens the action on Women, Beware the Devil , a new play by Lulu Raczka at the Almeida Theatre. And you would need to be Tynan to grasp all this, categorize it (“period drama” comes nowhere near) or find an overarching metaphor. That may be a good thing but is Raczka really breaking new ground? As Rupert Goold stood near the press desk while reviewers filed through the foyer, his smile alternated between beatific and Mephistophelian. I have interviewed Goold (he is surely Cavalier rather than Roundhead) and would trust him. And yet perhaps it is we who are the butt of the joke?This odd treatment of early English Civil War (say 1642) landed gentry often hits the mark but also misfires like the musket wielded by a terrifying mute Roundhead who enters the manor house at the close of an arduous evening. But in some of the most candid dismantling of the fourth wall that I can remember, Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea as the Devil (sporting a wonderful pair of miniature horns and reading the Evening Standard) has told us in a framing device that the piece will be a long haul. He adds that we can at least look forward to sex scenes and an execution. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family’s legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft. But Agnes has dark dreams of her own for this house.