The Duchess of Malfi: Death well done

Now running at UP’s Palma Hall is Dulaang UP’s intricate and timely staging of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. A Jacobean drama, which means it promises revenge, blood lust and blood-letting, plus corruption in high places and a surfeit of murderous intent, the play is being staged both in its original English and in its Filipino translation (Ang Dukesa ng Malfi), courtesy of Allan Palileo. Directed and adapted to stage by Tony Mabesa, there’s much to enjoy and learn from this post-Elizabethan tragedy that makes it uncannily relevant for our times.

By coincidence, The Duchess was one of the plays I had to study when taking my English Literature A-levels in England way back then. While Webster did not possess the command of language and verse that say, Shakespeare or Marlowe had in spades, his dramas were fiendishly plotted, and one can imagine the avid audience reaction his plays would elicit. After all, to the rabble and crowd, this was delicious irony; that on stage, we would see royalty and those high up in the religious and political hierarchy behaving like hardened criminals — stepping on and trammeling the virtuous and innocent.

In this case, the virtuous and innocent would be the title character, recently widowed, seeking love and finding it against the expressed wishes of her brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Her lover, Antonio, finds a foil in the duplicitous Bosola, hired by the brothers to spy on their sister. Another interesting character is the tempestuous Julia, betrothed to the aging Count, but mistress to the Cardinal. As can be gleaned from the brief summary above, the Malfi court is rotten to its core; and the machinations, deceit, struggles and murders that pile up make for the plot and action of this dense tragedy.

Playing the role of the Duchess, we have Liza Diño, Banaue Miclat and Adriana Agcaoili, while Bosola is portrayed by Neil Ryan Sese, Richard Cunanan and George de Jesus III. Jacques Borlaza is Ferdinand, while Menggie Cobarrubias and Brian Tibayan don the robes of the Cardinal. Antonio has Carlo Tarobal and Dax Alejandro as alternates, while Julia is taken on by Issa Litton, Martha Comia and Christelle Manuel. A host of UP graduates and students take on the other roles. On the opening night, I watched Cunanan’s Bosola and Litton’s Julia, which were the heavy crowd favorites. Cunanan gave Bosola the right amount of cunning and conflicted malefactions, while Litton interpreted Julia as lascivious wench, ready to bestow sexual favors at the drop of a pin. They provided the emotional color and ribald humor amidst the macabre occurrences and pernicious wrongdoings.

A poisoned Bible, lycanthropy, refugees from an insane asylum — there’s a rich pageant of virtue caught in the vise grip of evil intent in this play. I know I’ll be calling the UP College of Arts & Letters (tel. no. 981-8500 loc. 2449) to find out when the Filipino version will be staged, eager to witness how the translation plays out. The second production of this 38th season of Dulaang UP, The Duchess of Malfi has found a new home. And while Malfi may be half a world away from Manila, there’s a lot more in common between the two than we would have thought. The play runs until Sept. 29.