Women, Beware the Devil (Modern Plays)

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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. And here lies the problem at the centre of the play: when given the power to have anything you desire, what do you want? Riled by Elizabeth in the first scene, Agnes eventually reveals her desire to be ‘perfect’ – to feel silk on her skin, to eat off china, to have read every single book in the house, to own every piece of art in the gallery, and to be so knowledgeable, beautiful, and refined that anybody who looks at her is overcome with their own inadequacy. in England. Nothing is more important to Lady Elizabeth than protecting her family. When their home and legacy comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft.

Women, Beware the Devil review – bizarre comedy horror is

Double, double, toil and trouble: what strange sorcery is this? Lulu Raczka’s new play sounded so enticing – a murky brew of witchcraft, politics and revenge tragedy – but it turns out that it is more likely to induce indigestion than intoxication. Oozing lurid imagery, it has a certain appealing, audacious swagger, thanks in no small part to a sumptuous production by Rupert Goold. But it is also a frustrating mess, its notions about class, gender and power barely conceived, let alone developed. 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.

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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.

Women, Beware the Devil London Reviews and Tickets Women, Beware the Devil London Reviews and Tickets

Miriam Buether’s set is elegant and functional, a bare, panelled room in which appealingly laden dining tables are wheeled in from the wings and the much-maligned marital bed rises from the floor. Lighting and costume create some evocative moments, some with gorgeous intimations of Vermeer. Goold maintains a heady pace and a hearty wink throughout. Raczka’s days of hoping to catch the eye of tour bookers at the Edinburgh fringe are thankfully past. These days, she mixes writing plays with TV work on shows including tautly plotted, enjoyably dark Netflix historical drama Medici: Masters of Florence.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.

Women, Beware the Devil | Introduction by Lulu Raczka Women, Beware the Devil | Introduction by Lulu Raczka

Lola is in her final year at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Women, Beware the Devil is her professional stage debut.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.

Women, Beware the Devil: ‘It Alison Oliver and Lulu Raczka on Women, Beware the Devil: ‘It

Women, Beware the Devil is Raczka’s first time writing for a big stage, and that has come with challenges. “I was a year late handing in my play – everyone at the Almeida was very annoyed about it,” she explains, a little rueful. “But writing for a bigger stage is such a massive challenge. You need big ideas.”So, Raczka does indeed locate her drama in the past, 1640, and the eve of the English Civil War, though her richly conceived, daring, larking, fascinating oddity of a play resonates strongly with a Britain which continues to be stymied by tradition, elitism and a monarchy that just won’t go away; while witchcraft and domestic power struggles dominate the action, the subtext is a dialectic between the impulses for revolution and the status quo that the country has never resolved. I’d love to add this work to that corpus of achievement but I found myself ultimately more bothered and bewildered than bewitched by a play which starts with tremendous dazzle but slowly goes up in smoke. By the penultimate scene, Agnes appears to be on a similar social standing to the owners of the house and is running the whole shebang. And her silk evening dress (costumes by Evie Gurney) is as resplendent as Elizabeth’s velvet and taffeta outfits. Oliver is luminous and compelling as Agnes, having enjoyed a rapid transformation. Catapulted from a course in acting at Trinity College Dublin to the BBC Three series Conversations with Friends, she has now made an impressive professional stage debut.