Betrayal, greed, incest, murder: Shakespeare's contemporary John Webster's revenge tragedy paints a grim picture of a decadent court society drifting inexorably into the abyss.
The young Duchess of Malfi is married by her brothers to the nobleman Malateste to ensure the family's continued existence. After the forced consummation of the marriage, however, she poisons the disagreeable husband and seeks revenge against her brothers. Against their explicit orders, she marries the upstart Antonio, who in turn finds in the marriage a way to cover up his relationship with the courtier Delio. The Duchess knows that her twin brother Ferdinand feels far more than brotherly love for her and stirs up his jealousy to drive him mad. It only suits her that Ferdinand's spy Bosola immediately passes on any information she scatters to his master. He does not receive a fair reward for this, but instead Bosola falls victim to the Duchess's plans, just like everyone else at court. For no price is too high for her to complete her revenge. Soon she believes herself to be at the height of her triumph. But too late she must realize that it was not she who was pulling the strings in this game ...
The Kellertheater Frankfurt presents John Webster's rarely performed tragedy in a new German adaptation that will stir and carry away the audience with its psychological compression.
Text source and more information about this event at: http://www.kellertheater-frankfurt.de/produktionen/herzoginVonMalfi/index.html
