The Duchess of Malfi

When the widowed Duchess of Malfi chooses to love again, honestly and defiantly, the men in her family do everything in their power to break those that would dare to flout the unspoken rules of a “traditional” society. “Despite the 407 years between the premiere of The Duchess of Malfi and today, in some ways very little has changed,” states director Hayley Rice. “This production will focus on the (unfortunately timeless) theme of the power held, and desperately clung to, by a patriarchal society, and how something as simple as two people openly loving each other outside of that dichotomy is an inherent threat to those in power (then and today). Toxic masculinity is still an insidious disease. It lashes out at marginalized communities. It also eats away at some men, making them feel, to paraphrase a section of the text, like they’re ‘wearing a wolf-skin that is hairy on the inside,'” Rice continues.