The White Devil brought to life

Book now!

Like buses, productions of Hamlet come and go quite frequently. If you miss one, there’s likely to be another fairly soon. The same cannot be said for productions of John Webster’s The White Devil. This gutsy Jacobean tragedy is full of passion, violence and spectacle but performed only infrequently. This is a shame, as it’s a great play, as well as being a set text on the following syllabuses:

• AQA English Literature B
• OCR English Literature
• Cambridge Pre U

As anybody knows, when you are trying to grapple with a printed play text, the best thing you can do is see it brought to life on stage.

Today you have the chance, as booking has just opened for a new production of The White Devil by the RSC. The run is from the end of August to the start of October, which means that realistically a student group can only book between 3rd Sep – 3rd October. If you are studying the play, do let your teacher know, as tickets are likely to run out very quickly. Go to http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats- on/the-white-devil/ for details.

A vivid interpretation

One of the reasons the RSC are staging Webster’s revenge tragedy is because it features two feisty female roles in Vittoria and her maid, Zanche. These women are prepared to defy convention and fight for their rights within a controlling patriarchal society. The play is part of a season focusing on strong women in Jacobean drama.

Judging from the reviews of other recent productions by director, Maria Aberg, you can be confident that she will provide an engaging and powerful drama, full of fresh ways of understanding Webster’s world.

Be prepared

Before seeing it on stage, it really helps to be familiar with the plot of The White Devil. If you want a quick way in to the text, the synopses provided here will quickly give you a handle on the action.

There is much more detail available for when you delve into the play more fully and don’t forget that Crossref-it.info for Google Chrome also has a handy revision/study plan to help you collate everything you know about the text ready for examination.