SAMPLE THESIS TITLE WITH A CONCISE AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION


(RE)CLAIMING THE CANON: 

A NEW LENS FOR THE STAGING OF THOMAS MIDDLETON AND WILLIAM 

ROWLEY’S THE CHANGELING 

by 

Luciana Silvestre Fernandes 

 

B.A., Dalhousie University, 2012 

 

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF 

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

 

MASTER OF FINE ARTS 

in 

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES 

(Theatre)  

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 

(Vancouver) 

 

April 2020 

 

© Luciana Silvestre Fernandes, 2020 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



ii 

 

The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and 

Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: 

(RE)CLAIMING THE CANNON: A NEW LENS FOR THE STAGING OF THOMAS MIDDLETON 

AND WILLIAM ROWLEY’S THE CHANGELING 

 

submitted by Luciana Silvestre Fernandes in partial fulfillment of the requirements for 

the degree of Master of Fine Arts 

in Theatre 

 

Examining Committee: 

Lois Anderson, Adjunct Professor, Theatre, UBC 

Supervisor  

Stephen Heatley, Professor and Department Head, Theatre, UBC 

Supervisory Committee Member  

Patricia Badir, Professor and Department Head, English, UBC 

Additional Examiner 

 

 

 



iii 

 

Abstract 

 

This thesis examines the production of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling I 

directed as part of UBC's 2019-2020 season as a case study for re-framing classical and canonized 

narratives from an inter-sectional feminist lens. This was an expressionistic production, focused on 

embodying trauma and presenting the story from Beatrice-Joanna’s perspective. My project addresses 

the scarcity of production-based analysis in the academic dialogue, providing a practitioner's 

perspective. I discuss the importance of (re)claiming early modern scripts, the problematic misogynistic 

tropes of which are evidenced by the treatment of Beatrice-Joanna’s sexual assault in current 

scholarship and productions. In this thesis, I deconstruct the process of creation—from concept 

development, through text analysis, design development, and rehearsal practices; and finally, I reflect 

on the final product and its audiences. 

  



iv 

 

Lay Summary 

 

This thesis explains the directorial process I followed in staging Thomas Middleton and William 

Rowley’s The Changeling as part of UBC's 2019-2020 season. This production focused on the 

perspective of the central character in the play, Beatrice-Joanna, and on staging her trauma. This thesis 

outlines the importance presenting classical plays through contemporary perspectives and disrupting 

sexist traditions that become associated with those plays. I expose the process of creation from a 

director’s perspective: from concept development, through text analysis, design development, rehearsal 

practices and finally, I reflect on the final product and its audience. 



v 

 

Preface 

 

The conceptualization and delineation of this thesis was conducted by me under the supervision and 

guidance of Lois Anderson. I directed the 2019 production of The Changeling with the support of Lois, 

as well as the theatre production staff and students. I was assisted in the research for this thesis by input 

from and concurrent interviews with my cast and crew. 



vi 

 

Table of Contents 

 

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii 

Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv 

Preface ............................................................................................................................................ v 

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi 

List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii 

Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................... xi 

Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... xi 

Chapter 1: Driving Forces ............................................................................................................ 1 

1.1 Disrupting the Canon ...................................................................................................... 2 

1.2 Making my Point ............................................................................................................. 4 

1.3 Theatricality and a Director's Growth ............................................................................. 6 

1.4 On Defiance and Spite .................................................................................................... 8 

Chapter 2: Text Preparation ...................................................................................................... 11 

2.1 Text Analysis ................................................................................................................ 11 

2.1.1 Archival Text Work .................................................................................................. 12 

2.2 Contextual Research ..................................................................................................... 38 

2.2.1 The Grotesque ........................................................................................................... 38 

2.2.2     PTSD and Sexual Assault ........................................................................................ 41 

2.2.3 Trauma and Healing .................................................................................................. 44 

Chapter 3: To the Barber: Cutting and Adapting the Text .................................................... 48 



vii 

 

3.1 "If you are not doing the playwright's play, just write your own" and other such excuses 

artists give themselves  ............................................................................................................. 48 

3.2 Trim to Tighten ............................................................................................................. 50 

Chapter 4: An Expressionistic Nightmare ................................................................................ 57 

4.1 Structured Chaos ........................................................................................................... 57 

4.2 Movement and Joannas ................................................................................................. 58 

4.3 Designing a Nightmare ................................................................................................. 65 

4.3.1 Set.............................................................................................................................. 66 

4.3.2 Costumes ................................................................................................................... 71 

4.3.3 Lights and Sound ...................................................................................................... 77 

4.4 Rape into Wedding........................................................................................................ 79 

Chapter 5: Staging Violence and Staging Consent .................................................................. 85 

Chapter 6: Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 89 

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 90 

Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 92 

 

 



viii 

 

List of Figures 

 

Figure 1 Cast and Crew (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; 

Photo by Javier R. Sortres) …………….….……………….……………….……………….………..1 

Figure 2: Chantal Gering, Aoeiffe Davies and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas (Set by Luis Belassai; 

Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres) …………….……5 

Figure 3: Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna above and Kyle Preston Oliver as De Floresbelow (Set by 

Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…..7 

Figure 4: Flow Chart for Main Plot Action Analysis…….…………….……………..……………...14 

Figure 5: Flow Chart for Sub Plot Action Analysis…….…………….…………….………………..15 

Figure 6: Flow Chart Mapping Stages of Beatrice-Joanna’s Trauma…….…………….……………15 

Figure 7 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna (Promotional Photo by Javier R. Sortres) …….…………37 

Figure 8 A moment of the Madmen Morris. Aoife McAndless-Davis, Chantal Gering, Genevieve 

Guimond, Nicco Graham and Connor Riopel as madpeople, Monica Bowman as Isabella (Set by 

Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…39 

Figure 9 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna at the end of the play. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by 

Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)……………….……………….47 

Figure 10 Monica Bowman as a Joanna performing a movement sequence in a Joanna booth (Set by 

Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…60 

Figure 11 Chantal Gering, Aoife McAndless-Davis, and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas, half-lit in 

the platform during the last scene. Hayden Davis as Alsemero and Bonnie Duff as Beatrice center 

stage. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier 

R. Sortres) …….…………….…………….………….…………….…………….………………….62 



ix 

 

Figure 12 Chantal Gering, Aoife McAndless-Davis and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas and Monica 

Bowman as Isabella surround Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in the epilogue. (Set by Luis Belassai; 

Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). …………..……65 

Figure 13 Visual Research of inspiration for set design shared with Belassai. The fabric and rope 

ones were shared on the second round of visual research. In a moment of serendipity, Belassai and I 

realized we had both been drawn and inspired by images of the same dance show we had not yet 

shared with each other at that point………....……....……....……....……................……....…...…..67 

Figure 14 Me, Director Luciana Silvestre Fernandes,  in the Chan Centre studying the space during a 

design meeting and a picture of the space, including the "donut" (octagonal structure at the catwalk 

level) that Luis and I were drawn to. ………......……....……....……....……………………........…68 

Figure 15 A progression of Luis Belassai set drafts on sketch up…………………………………...69 

Figure 16 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice Joanna and the cast during curtain call, with all the lines leading 

to her after her death. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; 

Photo by Javier R. Sortres)……….……………………………..………….………………………..70 

Figure 17 Visual Research of inspiration for costume design shared with Chang at the start of the 

process………………………………………………………………………………………………..71 

Figure 18 Costume Sketches by Charlotte Chang for Main Plot and Subplot (including Livia, who 

appears in the subplot but belongs to the world of the main plot)…………………………………...72 

Figure 19 Chantal Gering as Diaphanta (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights 

by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)………………………………………………………….74 

Figure 20 Chantal Gering as Diaphanta (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights 

by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…………….……………………………………………74 

Figure 19 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in her first dress………………………………………...75 



x 

 

Figure 22 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice Joanna in her Wedding dress, surrounded by the Joannas, 

Genevieve Guimond, Chantal Gering, Aoifee McAndless-Davies, and Monica Bowman (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)……….76 

Figure 20 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in her final dress (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by 

Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)………………………………..77 

Figure 21 The ropes and fluorescent scenic painting under black light. Photo by Zach Levis……...79 

Figure 22 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna and Kyle Oliver Preston as De Flores when he pulls her to 

him before undoing her corset (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach 

Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…………………………………………………………………...80 

Figure 23Monica Bowman, Aoife McAndless-Davis, Chantal Gering and Genevieve Guimond as the 

Joannas, dress Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna and admire her in her wedding dress (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)……….82 

Figure 27 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna having a moment with her feelings on top of 4.1 (Set by 

Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…84 

Figure 28 Monica Bowman as Isabela and Ishan Sanduh as Antonios (Set by Luis Belassai; 

Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres)…………………87 

 



xi 

 

Acknowledgements 

 

Staging a play takes a village. I could not possibly have had a better community to support me. My 

undying gratitude goes first and foremost to my number one ally, Lois Anderson, who supported and 

challenged me every step of the way.  

 

I owe it all to my creative team and the production staff at UBC. Thank you for your endless support, 

hard work, and eagerness in making this project come to life. 

 

An enormous thank you for Andy Ireland and Niko Bell, who kept me grounded, sane, entertained and 

fed. Theatre is a cruel mistress— thank you for being there when I was at best absent, at worst not 

myself, and entirely consumed by work. 



xii 

 

Dedication 

 

To all the invisible women that nobody seeth or heareth.



1 

 

Chapter 1: Driving Forces 

To stage a play is to make a statement. The choice of play text reflects an artist’s personal 

interest, style and mode of interaction with their socio-political contexts. In this chapter, I 

address my driving forces: I am fueled both by the existing academic and performance traditions 

and current dialogue as well as a deeply personal desire to fight my own demons and claim a 

space and a voice. 

Defiance of where I’ve been taught to be. 

 

Figure 1 Cast and Crew (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by 

Javier R. Sortres). 

 

 



2 

 

 

1.1 Disrupting the Canon 

In my MFA in Theatre Directing at UBC, my research focused on reclaiming history and 

period narratives.  The professional Canadian main stages are not representative of all Canadian 

voices; according to the most recent Arts Council report, only 33% of directors and 28% of 

artistic directors are women, and a large gender wage gap is still prevalent (37). The Diversity in 

Canada Labour Report highlights that minority artists earn 11% less than their white 

counterparts; and that while over 22% of Canadians are visible minorities, the place in the theatre 

in which they are best represented, as actors, is still merely 12% (1-7). In order to change these 

alarming statistics to reflect our current demographics, it is pivotal to have diverse artists take 

centre stage, and participate in the most celebrated forms and texts, while engaging with 

contemporary concerns. 

Canonical texts are part of our collective consciousness: their endurance over time is 

often related to the text's ability to speak to a transcendent universal truth. Yet, dominant cultures 

determine what is considered universal, eclipsing alternate and nuanced understandings from the 

margins. My approach to canonical materials is to encounter these nuanced perspectives. The 

sense of familiarity these plays have from their previous incarnations can be disrupted in 

performance, with the potential to dislodge dogmatic understandings of the themes in the play, 

and to initiate pluralistic conversations. The conversations I aim to incite revolve around 

inclusion, the #metoo movement, and how to break cycles of abuse. I am delving into the realm 

of trauma and healing, following Judith Herman’s approach of taking the individual experience 

and placing it into a broader political frame to understand trauma within the socio-cultural 

conditions that frame the individual experience. 



3 

 

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling is one of the most performed 

non-Shakespearean Jacobean plays, and a play with many themes that resonate in the #metoo 

era: power dynamics, coercion, and the suppression of women. My aim is to unsettle the 

traditions associated with this play, the production history of which has been marked by limited 

patriarchal interpretations. Directors have demonstrated a longstanding tendency to downplay the 

rape of the play’s central female character, Beatrice-Joanna.  

The Changeling's popularity has grown in recent years, with a Stratford production 

directed by Jackie Maxwell in 2017. But even Maxwell’s production added a scene of 

intercourse with an enthusiastic Beatrice-Joanna on top of DeFlores, deflating the reality and 

gravity of her assault. The recent scholarship on the play-text contains no less problematic aims 

to blur the lines of consent. Kim Solga argues that Beatrice-Joanna’s "status as a victim of sexual 

violence (indeed, of any violence at all) is wholly uncertain" (146). Frances E. Dolan argues that 

coercion is distinct from rape, and she minimizes the assault, arguing that Beatrice-Joanna also 

uses coercion, only differently. To dismiss a woman’s assault and status as a survivor because 

she does not fall into the role of a “perfect victim,” and to exclude coercion from rape, are both 

exemplary of the cultural attitudes the #metoo movement aims to combat. These interpretations 

blame the victim and frame sexual assault as an ultimately liberating experience—a problematic 

trope in many stagings of period pieces, and one I refuse to stand by.  

I reject oppressive patriarchal ideas and ideals, rules and best practices. 

It is important to note that Solga and Dolan’a articles were written before the #metoo 

movement. Charlene Smith, artistic director of Brave Spirits Theatre in Virginia, also staged The 

Changeling post-#metoo in 2018 and wrote an article about her approach, claiming directors 

should “give the power of storytelling to the people most affected by the story.” Smith and I are 



4 

 

creating in response to the #metoo movement, re-contextualizing plays to fit this new reality and 

consciousness. 

 

1.2 Making my Point 

Misogynistic production choices are often based on misguided assertions about “the 

playwright's intention,” a mode of thought that still reigns in less forward-thinking playhouses. 

To presume that there is a correct interpretation locked up in the murky territory of the 

playwright’s mind is limiting. This approach leads to what renowned director Peter Brook 

describes as the Deadly Theatre, or the theatre that lacks human honesty in performance. As 

Brook articulates it: “Deadly Theatre approaches the classics from the viewpoint that 

somewhere, someone has found out and defined how the play should be done” (15). In fact, 

theatre is a live art where meaning is created by many artists, through multiple integrated media. 

My approach breaks the hierarchy of Deadly Theatre, embracing the creative team's voice on 

equal level with the text. After all, to do theatre is to engage in an act of interpretation, and I 

have no intention of hiding behind an imagined playwright’s mind.  

Art is, at its best, transformative. I embrace the philosophy that artists are artisans of 

reality, shaping how audiences perceive the world can shape how they interact with it. It is 

through our choices of representation that we challenge our unconscious or semi-conscious 

dogmas. Artists start conversations through our choices of representation: what we normalize 

and challenge, whose voices we amplify, and what questions we deem worthy of asking. In my 

thesis, I embrace that my artistic vision is shaped by the fact that I am a woman, a visible 

minority, an immigrant, and someone who has had similar experiences to Beatrice-Joanna. The 



5 

 

first three times I read this play it gave me nightmares. Haunting and uncannily familiar, 

Beatrice-Joanna's journey sat with me for a decade before materializing.  

This play is deeply dissatisfying, and that draws me to it because such plays are the ones 

you carry with you long after the curtain call; the ones you find yourself wrestling with, 

questioning that which is left unfixed in the play and in you. I am drawn to work that has no 

flawless heroes, only deliciously flawed humans, fighting and struggling in their own right; work  

that boldly brings out worlds with walls that close in on you if you don't tread carefully and 

perform according to their rules. Above all, I am drawn to work that embodies the most visceral 

and difficult experiences of humanity, such as the struggle for agency and the reality of trauma— 

that is Beatrice-Joanna's plight. 

Beyond Beatrice’s nightmare or mine, this is a collective trauma. Far too many of us 

carry invisible scars. My goal is to do justice to her and to the many invisible womxn who have 

had their sexual assaults discredited. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Chantal Gering, Aoeife McAndless-Davies and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas (Set by Luis Belassai; 

Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



6 

 

 

1.3 Theatricality and a Director’s Growth 

My quest from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast was motivated by the desire to grow as a 

director, to experiment, to be influenced by different artists and ultimately to find my artistic 

voice. In my time in British Columbia, I re-discovered my passion for physical theatre and 

movement as a primary means of storytelling; I had the safe space to explore my passion for the 

classics while committing to my own individual encounters with them; and I was able to expand 

on my usage of the visual and sensorial elements of theatre. The Changeling represents the 

synthesis of my growth.   

In a moment of struggle, I recall feeling that I had lost my vision and confidence. I 

thought: “What is a director without confidence and vision?!” From that moment on, I embarked 

on a journey of healing. Confidence and vision for me are connected to the imperative of a 

director as an artistic leader: to ground a production with a clear vision, to inspire one’s team, 

and  to create an environment conducive to creative exploration, all while acting as the point that 

ties the team’s artistic views together. I believe the best art walks the line between the intimately 

personal and the “universal,” or the very relatable, and that a play is only ever relatable if it is 

personal and specific—that is, real. Audiences can sense truth.  

The great challenge then is to keep the process personal and real as the endless analysis, 

research, and multiplicity of voices join in. I turned to Peter Brook’s process as described in The 

Shifting Point: “When I begin work on a play, I start with a deep, formless hunch which is like a 

smell, a colour, a shadow. That is the basis of my job, my role—that’s my preparation for 

rehearsals for any play I do. There’s a formless hunch that is my relationship with the play. It’s 

my conviction that it must be done today” (3). Committing to my hunch, my nightmare, and how  



7 

 

real this story is for so many women became my grounding point. 

Classical and canonized work can be particularly threatening and deadly to a director. 

These plays have centuries of traditions, debates, and generally agreed on interpretations and 

accepted stagings. The weight of a text that has become untouchable can turn an artist away from 

their personal experience of the text, turning them into a text analyst instead. Text should be 

inspiring, not limiting. My goal was to focus on what the text inspires rather than to be trapped 

Figure 3 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna above and Kyle Preston Oliver as De Flores below (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres) 



8 

 

by it, to be free from any previous assumptions of what is and is not important and commit to my 

own lens in adapting, cutting and staging. 

For every “whence” and “wherefore” you 

deny me, I claim "'tis" and "'twere" tenfold. 

The Changeling was also an exercise in style for me. My goal was to embrace 

theatricality, the multimedia nature of performance, and the sanctity of the theatrical space as a 

place of gathering. I reject kitchen-sink realism in my practice. Theatre must embrace its 

theatricality to unleash its power. I wanted to collaborate with my designers to create a unique 

world for Beatrice-Joanna that is true to the aspects of her reality that are pivotal to the story I 

am telling: the nightmare, the realm of trauma and entrapment. My goal was to push my design 

team to find the expressionist artist in themselves and bring us their nightmares too. 

Moving forward from my visual and spatial explorations in this production, I want to 

further explore rhythm and sound and their role in crafting an experience for the audience. After 

this production, I am particularly interested in the power of design and creating work that is 

centered on design, either with design as a start point, or the main element in storytelling. 

 

1.4 On Defiance and Spite 

The ultimate driving force in all my work is defiance and spite. An artist cannot create  

from a place of indifference. The strongest passions for me lie in opposition: to create in spite of, 

or to spite, becomes natural for one who does not fit the outdated expectations of what a 

“director” ought to be or do. That a young immigrant woman whose first language is not English 

obsesses over Elizabethan and Jacobean scripts provokes surprise, but also contempt. The 



9 

 

expectations of what those plays ought to look like and who gets to tell their supposedly 

“universal” stories is at the core of what I defy. I defy staging and writing traditions. 

 

Defiance of where I’ve been taught to be 

Spite for the rules and hierarchies; 

Defiance of your gatekeeping and  

Spite for poorly masked glass ceilings-- 

I adore those scripts, but lacking white hairs 

and a deep entitled voice, I’m told no. 

Do as you wish, as you dare, as you like: 

Please deny me. Say I don't belong. 

For every “whence” and “wherefore” you 

deny me, I claim "'tis" and "'twere" tenfold. 

 

By all sweets that darkness ever tasted 

I tell you—art can be nothing but free. 

The privilege to be a storyteller 

is no longer yours alone. Scary, huh? 

Let me be damned and burn in the pits of hell 

if I don't play Faustus and make ghosts flesh 

giving every invisible being you 

so carefully erased and muted 

a body and a voice center stage. 



10 

 

 

I reject oppressive patriarchal ideas and ideals, rules and best practices. 

 

 ‘Twas her fortune; a wench laid her eyes upon an olde tale. A tale of a lady, so alike the 

wench, in every hope, imperfection and, alas—also in their fates. So alike that the devils of the 

wench’s past were summoned. Ghosts of her memory came to life: these hands not more alike 

than her ghosts to the lady’s. Much desirous for change in her fate, the wench dared speak. 

 — “Oh, a parlous fool! To profess her truth! Know her not to hold her honour close? 

Know her not her place?” “Subtle Slut!” “A pretty easy round-packed sinner as most your 

ladies are.” “Lock her up!” “Cunning Devil.” “Silly little slut.” 

 Ay, a loud wench is a most fearsome deformity. 

 And that is power. 

 And she conjured her powers and affirmed she knew the lady best of all. “Fuck you—that 

coercion isn’t rape and that an imperfect victim isn’t a victim.” Many a delicate wench marked 

her. Their pretty heads suddenly tilted. Incendiary. Many a wench stood, holding their ground 

and each other’s hands.  

 



11 

 

Chapter 2: Text Preparation 

The director's job begins well before rehearsals commence. At the start the rehearsal 

process, the director must be the absolute specialist in the subject. That is not to say that the 

director has to have all the answers, but rather become intimately familiar with the play so as to 

have come to know how little you knew. This is the stage where the director has found all the 

pertinent questions that can be found alone; has interrogated and built worlds. Day one of 

rehearsals must be the time to play: the director has laid the foundation and built the playground, 

so the time has come to go roll in the sand instead of worry about intellectual and analytical 

concerns.  

 In this chapter, I include my preparatory text work, completed in advance of rehearsals as 

well as my adaptation process and a discussion of both. 

 

2.1  Text Analysis 

Each production has unique challenges of its own and requires a unique approach to text 

work: my preparation for Moira Buffini’s Silence, a linear contemporary realist play, was very 

different than my preparation to adapt Sophocles’ Antigone into a seven-Antigone expressionist 

dance-theatre piece. For this project, as it is common in my practice, I borrow from  

various practitioners, such as Katie Mitchell, David Ball and Peter Brook, and add elements of 

my own practice developed over time.   

 The aim of text analysis and research for a director is to make the text rehearsal ready. I 

include below only the tasks that were necessary to obtain that clarity, and it is important to 

understand that this fragment does not attempt to include all knowledge that years of scholarship 

and practice performing these texts brings: theatre is a craft, and this form of text analysis is 



12 

 

more technical than it is intellectual. It represents the stage of interpretation I was in before 

bringing in designers and performers.  

 

2.1.1  Archival Text Work  

The bulleted points in this and the following sub-sections are the archival text work as 

completed in the summer and early fall. The paragraphs after the bullets serve to contextualize 

the work done. 

• Turning a hunch into a concept  

o This play gave me nightmares the first 3 times I read it. Whenever stuck in the 

theoretical and getting lost in the questions, get back to those nightmares. 

This is an application of Peter Brook’s approach, as discussed in Chapter 1.3. 

• Articulate purpose and need (why it needs to be done so desperately) 

o This play tells the story of a woman who attempts to play the bloody games of the 

dog-eat-dog world she inhabits to her advantage and find agency in the violent 

ways her world has taught her; she is caught in her own snare though. The odds 

are stacked too high against her. This production will tell the story from Beatrice-

Joanna's perspective and portray the reality of the trauma that follows her sexual 

assault. My aim to unsettle traditions associated with this play and resonate with 

the #metoo era: tackling hot topics such as the suppression of women, power 

dynamics, and coercion. 



13 

 

o Canonical texts are part of our collective consciousness. The sense of familiarity 

these plays have from their previous incarnations can be disrupted in 

performance. Beatrice-Joanna has been done a grave injustice by scholars and 

practitioners alike. This play’s production history has been marked by limited 

patriarchal interpretations.  

o My goal is to do justice to her and to the many invisible women who have had 

their sexual assaults discredited.  

The question of “why this play” and “why now” is not only a question a director must be  

ready to answer for grant and festival applications. As an artist I am interested in purpose—and 

purpose cannot be lost to process. Articulating clearly why a work needs to be done grounds a 

director in their vision. My motivations here were further articulated in Chapter 1. 

 

• Action- Mapping  

o Flow-chart analysis for plot and subplot; subplot as related/supporting main plot



14 

 

 

Figure 4: Flow Chart for Main Plot Action Analysis 



15 

 

 

Figure 5: Flow Chart for Sub Plot Action Analysis 

 

Figure 6: Flow Chart Mapping Stages of Beatrice-Joanna’s Trauma



16 

 

 Figures 4 and 5 are how I apply David Ball’s mapping of actions, working backwards to 

trace the action of the play following his definition of action as what “occurs when something 

happens that makes or permits something else to happen” (9). This approach helps a director find 

clarity—a play is action and achieving clarity of action is laying the foundation needed before 

any conceptual work can take place.  

 Obtaining this clarity, I could then work on cuts that don’t affect the clarity of action and 

the material reality of the play and discover patterns in rhythm—for example, in the first few 

scenes there are very few actions, while, after the rape, every page is action packed. This informs 

me of how to guide the audience’s breath through the pace of the play. It also reveals potential 

traps and challenges: the blue boxes, for example, where pivotal action happens off-stage and the 

details of what actually happen are unclear. This in turn informs me of where clarity will be most 

important, where decisions will need to be made very clearly, and, conceptually, what is part of 

the “he said she said” problem and what is clearly shown to the audience. 

 The subplot chart was particularly helpful, as the subplot of this play is a great challenge: 

most of it is entirely disconnected from the main plot, until the gentleman in disguise, Franciscus 

and Antonios are revealed to be counterfeits and suspected of Alonzo’s murder. The chart 

assisted me in the cutting process, keeping me focused on what was important to move the action 

forward and made me consider the important question of what role, if not to move the main plots 

action, does it serve. Through a series of close readings and analysis, the parallels between 

Beatrice-Joanna and Isabella became clearer, the role of the madhouse in expanding the world 

from Beatrice’s household to the community at large and demonstrating quite clearly the shared 

ideology of those who have power and the real threat of what happens to people who do not 

behave according to this society’s strict code. 



17 

 

 In addition to the action of the play, I followed the same strategy in mapping Beatrice-

Joanna’s trauma, as illustrated in Figure 6. Applying this process to her trauma is the key to 

telling the story from her perspective and to honoring her journey. This process grounds in action 

the aspects of the production where the expressionist elements will take place and clarifies 

important questions of the passage time which are then pivotal in helping guide my actress. The 

immediacy I discovered through the combination of these simple flow-charts (how immediately 

after the rape she gets married and how little time to process and plan she has)  illuminated and 

shaped her character’s decision-making process in the second half of the play. It also grounded 

me in what became the most important scene of the play in my production: the transition from 

rape to wedding, when the nightmare merges with and consumes the action. 

• Scene by Scene- Tracking action; trauma; moment before and after; significance 

o 1.1 Church Sunday Morning  

▪ Beatrice-Joanna and Alsemero see each other and fall in love at 

first/second sight 

▪ Pre-Trauma, B-J is at her most confident. 

▪ Moment before- imagined: B-J woke up, Diaphanta got her ready, they 

went to leave, and De Flores was waiting to accompany them to church. 

She sat far from him and followed mass. He watched her the whole time.  

▪ Moment before- imagined: Alsemero woke up after dreaming of a 

shipwreck and went to church to ask God to bless his voyage. 

▪ Significance: Love that one would kill for, undeniable chemistry needed, 

greater than Romeo and Juliet sparkles.  



18 

 

o 1.1 A street near the harbour/ church; Sunday Morning  

▪ Beatrice-Joanna and Alsemero confess their love and Joanna has him 

invited to her father's castle. 

▪ Pre-Trauma, B-J is most active/has most agency, playing games in order 

to control her future. 

▪ Moment before, almost immediately before: they lock eyes at church. 

Moment before- imagined: Jasperino wonders thinking of her, she starts 

home but comes back this way to run into him. 

▪ Significance: Assault Plot-   Other- A lot of firsts 

o 1.2 Alibius House; Sunday around midday 

▪ Counterfeit madman joins the madhouse 

▪ Moment Before: probably after having a meal (before feeding the interns); 

Livia and Antonio have probably rehearsed it; was there some jealousy 

trigger for Allibius? 

▪ Significance: Assault Plot- ? 

o 2.1 Castle Sunday around midday 

▪ B-J postpones wedding  

▪ Pre-Trauma, but fear is present as are his obsession and his stalking 

▪ Moment Before: Alonzo and Tomazo get off their ship; B-J gets home and 

sends for Jasperino to bear her message; De Flores discusses businesses he 

is to carry with her father, until her fiancé arrives and he is sent ahead. 



19 

 

▪ Significance: Assault Plot- husband-to-be is introduced, how B-J's father 

talks of her, her using womanly ways to get what she needs; interaction 

with De Flores confessing to stalking her. 

o 2.2 Castle Shortly after  

▪ B-J decides to and proceeds to seduce Deflores into killing her fiance. 

▪ Pre-Trauma: most agency, believes she has won  

▪ Moment before: B-J waits anxiously, making herself look her best; 

Alsemero was probably getting ready to leave and sail away, De Flores 

has been stalking her and is spying on her. 

▪ Significance: Assault Plot- the moment he finds his way to corner her, as 

she thinks she has found a way to be rid of him (both triumphant); when 

she is unknowingly trapped 

o 3.1 A Narrow Passage the next morning (upon his rising) 

▪ De Flores kills Alonzo 

▪ Moment Before: De Flores probably has not slept in anticipation. Alonzo ? 

▪ Significance: point of no return 

o 3.2 A Vault- madhouse at the same time as the last two scenes? Same day? 

▪ Tony reveals himself to Isabella and Lollio tries to take advantage of that; 

madmen are commissioned for B-J's wedding 



20 

 

▪ Moment Before: Alibius was out for business and received letter from 

messenger; Isabella got ready to go to the market; Lollio ? some work-

related task? 

▪ Significance: Assault plot- when both worlds are brought together with the 

wedding. Other- exact parallel to B-J being creeped on by her owner's 

keeper and assaulted by him, trying to claim agency through threats of 

getting other men to kill for her out of love 

o 3.3 A chamber in the Castle, after breakfast 

▪ De Flores approaches Joanna post-murder reveals what he wants for 

payment, traps her, rapes her. 

▪ Moment Before: De Flores buried the body; Joanna her father and 

Alsemero all had breakfast together and were just leaving 

▪ The act- confusion and guilt: did she yield? Did she deserve it? Did she 

have an option? Should she have yelled and been guilty of murder rather 

than let him have her? Is this payment for her crime? 

o 3.4 Wedding- that day into next day *potentially a moment of suspension of time: 

time becomes less about passing hour and more about her experience and how her 

trauma distorts it. 

▪ Moment Before: Her father chooses Alsemero in place of Alonzo to marry 

B-J since he has disappeared, she does so. 



21 

 

▪ Trauma: her behaviours are impulsive, she is, unknowingly, responding to 

her assault. Dissociations begin. Touch is uncomfortable, reality is 

confusing. Everything brings potential harm. 

▪ Significance: -Trauma: auto-pilot into wedding, raw and everything she 

has done this for… and now she faces the bleak reality of it -Other: design 

and all should start really following her impression of the world, not the 

world as is. 

o 4.1 Alsemero's Chamber, after wedding ceremony, before party and 

consummation. 7h to bedtime. 

▪ B-J discovers virginity test, and fearing to be discovered, tests her maids 

virginity and negotiates a bed trick with her 

▪ Trauma: raw, and irrational, struggling to stay in control, pretending 

rationality but unable to be her usual pragmatic self, anxious and restless. 

She is a different person. 

▪ Moment Before: The family arrives from the church for the festivities, B-J 

escapes the oppressive performance of her fairy-tale ending, in agony, 

thinking of the night to come. Diaphanta was working/flirting and was 

sent by her father to look for B-J to come greet a late-arriving guest. 

▪ Significance: She can be exposed and lose it all. She realizes that the 

snowball effect is possible and probable. 

o 4.2 A chamber in the castle, same day 



22 

 

▪ Vermandero suspects the missing gentleman (counterfeit madmen), 

Alonzo's brother comes to claim vengeance; BJ's virginity is suspected by 

Alsemero (his friend and her maid's gossip). She is tested, she feigns it 

satisfactorily. 

• Moment Before: Beatrice-Joanna had told De Flores of her bed trick plan 

and came back looking for Alsemero; Alsemero was hosting ? ; Jasperino 

was flirting/hooking up with Diaphanta, was he maybe planning to ask for 

her hand after the wedding (now that she would have a dowry)?; De Flores 

is looking for Beatrice Joanna, also concerned they will find out she is not 

a virgin and what they will do about it, she has tells him she has already 

figured it out and how. This is the interaction/conversation that is 

overheard. Tomazo has just docked and left the port in a hurry— he was 

supposed to be coming to his brother’s wedding and just found out on the 

port another man is marrying where his brother should be. 

▪ Trauma: Beatrice Joanna is shaken from interacting with De Flores but is 

forcing herself to present/ to be “in control” and keep going “business as 

usual,” though for anyone paying close attention, there is little that seems 

normal here. Everything is heightened.  

▪ Significance: She wins for once!  

o 4.3 A room in Alibius's house, the day before the wedding ** SHOULD I MOVE 

THIS? ** Or is the party on a different day than the ceremony? Does it matter if I 

don't mention tomorrow? ** 



23 

 

▪ Isabella disguises herself as a madwoman to test Tony's love, both Tony 

and Franciscus are called out for their pretense and pitched against each 

other. 

▪ Moment Before: Lollio brings her letter after reading and laughing at it. 

What does she do to pass time?—bring it onto the stage whatever her 

action is until Lollio interrupts. 

▪ Significance: Disguises are exposed; superficial intentions too. Isabella is 

the one who tests the trueness of her would-be lover and he fails; essence 

vs appearances/ the good name vs the intention parallel.  

o 5.1 A gallery in the castle 1am; consummation 

▪ De Flores persuades a shaken B-J that he is her protector and kills 

Diaphanta. 

▪ Trauma: When B-J is the most shaken. Can’t keep her thoughts straight, 

easily take, on survival mode. De Flores sees this and prays on that (it is 

the sun rising when it is 2am) and convinces her she depends on him. The 

moment she starts trying to convince herself, and the audience, that she 

should love him.  

▪ Moment Before: B-J made Diaphanta ready in her clothes and left in a 

robe to wait in a room she won't be found, where she said she would meet 

Diaphanta after the act, switch clothes and exchange places again. 

Vermandero was probably in bed. De Flores? 



24 

 

▪ Significance: major shift in the story/her path that needs to be very clear. 

A lot of small-ish suggestions that may need to be underlined: 1am; “I 

must trust somebody” beat; clarity of what his plan is; organized 

believable chaos for when his plan is in action. 

o 5.2 A Chamber next day? 

▪ Tomazo, very suspicious of everyone, is told that the two in the madhouse 

have escaped the day of the murder and are likely guilty. 

▪ Moment before: Tomazo may have had what should have been a pleasant 

encounter and finds himself unable to enjoy it. De Flores Vermandero 

would have just been visited by Allibius and Isabella and told the news 

and immediately come looking for Tomazo 

▪ Significance: when the two plots collide, and we think B-J/De Flores are 

off the hook (we/the audience should believe this). 

o 5.3 Alsemero's chamber- may start simultaneously or immediately after 

▪ Alsemero sees Beatrice and De Flores interacting and confronts her, locks 

her up, then De Flores with her. De Flores murders her and gets to be the 

one to decide how the story is told. 

▪ Trauma: finger in the open wound moment. Person most loved attacks her 

and accuses her of being horrible for having been assaulted (and for 

arranging a murder, lest we forget). Her worshipped fiancé attacking her 

makes her break with considerable ease. A combination of fragility and 



25 

 

him being the one she can't lie to/hold her pretense to (again, likely 

informed by what was that interaction) 

▪ Moment before: De Flores and Joanna have an amicable interaction 

(about?) while being watched by Alsemero and his friend. Counterfeit 

madmen have been arrested and brought over (likely by Lollio, should be 

in the scene). 

▪ Significance:  Final scene— how do we button the story, what is the final 

image, what do we make of the final words? How do we underline the 

irony/ horror in the end and the play’s final words? (to ask design team 

too) 

 

 The scene by scene analysis is the guide to why each scene is important in the play. No 

scene can lack purpose or central action. At this stage, I discover important elements through the 

details: what in the scene could be dangerously underplayed, such as the complexity around 

Diaphanta’s death. I broaden meaning from the details to an understanding of the play as a 

whole, paralleling the subplot and main plots for example. This is also when I truly start 

preparing to support the actors, understanding where their characters come from, building 

potential suggestions, focusing on which blanks must be filled and which micro-level patterns 

identified—such as how we never know exactly what  Lollio was doing before he enters the 

stage. 

 

 



26 

 

• Back to Basics: 

o Stasis- B-J marries the man her father chose; he moves into the castle; De Flores 

continues to creep at her from a somewhat safe distance. 

o Intrusion- B-J and Alsemero confess their love to each other. 

o High Gear- B-J gets De Flores to murder her fiancé. 

o Decisive turn- De Flores rapes B-J. 

o New Stasis- Joanna and De Flores are dead, Alsemero is the new son to her 

father. 

o Point of attack: Joanna and Alsemero falling in love. 

 

 My “back to basics” is another look at the broad picture, understanding the world of the 

play and what makes the play happen—the events that forever change the world of the play and 

keep the production dynamic. This process highlights what is at stake (or what makes a play 

dramatic) and provides the peaks in the dramatic structure.  

 I also find a lot of clarity through understanding the point of attack: a play shows a 

specific section of a story, and the choice of where to start shapes the lens through which we 

experience it. For example, that the play begins with Beatrice-Joanna and Alsemero falling in 

love inform us of her motivation—she does it all for love. It also ranks what is most important: 

her relationship with Alsemero. The arrangement made for her to marry Alonzo, and their 

relationship, is not as central. 

 

 



27 

 

• Audience Journey 

o Opening 1.1/1.2: Light with moments of tension – cheering like Romeo and 

Juliet; intrigued by the Joannas (tension on de Flores interaction); only tension on 

Lollio's last line 

o 2.1/2.2: Kind of creeped out by de Flores, even if unsure of how to feel about B-

J's aggressive dismissal of him. As she seduces him- amused/impressed but free to 

judge her a bit 

o 3.1/ 3.2: Horrified at the actual brutality of de Flores and Lollio  

o 3.3/ 3.4: Tables officially turned: pity Joanna 

o 4.1: “How is she going to deal with the aftermath now?” 

o 4.2: Heightened tension: “Are they going to be caught? How far can she go with 

it?” (So absurd it is kinda funny) 

o 4.3: But the funny is ugly. Laugh and feel the discomfort of doing so (madmen 

morris) 

o 5.1: “No, no no! Don't go there! Don't do that. Don't kill her. Don't fall for him.”  

o 5.2: “Will they have “peace?”” 

o 5.3: “WTF.” 

Tracking the audience’s journey is not often part of my process, but something I 

experimented with. I struggle with how determining the audience’s journey may lead a director 

to misperceive what is inevitably a plural audience as a unified being. Audiences are made up of 

a wide range of individuals who bring their own experiences and interpretations, which are 

legitimate and true. This also risks creating from the outside in, creating a superficial production 



28 

 

through the focus on a desired effect rather than allowing an effect to happen because of tight, 

well executed action.  

Moving forward, I plan on experimenting with other ways to track the flow and execution 

of a vision (a play has direction and a desired impact after all), without denying my audiences 

their plurality.   

 

• Patterns, mirrors, contrasts  

o Themes: victim blaming; “the perfect victim;” gendered violence; power 

structures; existing in an unethical world; corruption; how public perception 

shapes what is moral; abuse masked as love; agency; appearances; “shame.” 

▪ Focus: Existing in an unethical world, how it corrupts and punishes you 

for existing on the margins/ trying to break away from its strict limitations.  

▪ To explore and embody trauma as a means of empathy for those stuck in 

an oppressive world. 

o Imagery and language 

▪ Evoked: a woman cleansing herself.  

▪ Textual: “I am in a labyrinth” (BJ), haunting (1.1 De Flores haunts B-J, 

memories and guilt haunt her) 

My challenge in this section was to keep to the “less is more” approach, when the text is so 

rich in imagery and too much can be said about language. The goal of highlighting themes and 

imagery in language was opposite to that of a literary analysis, where more is truly more; instead 



29 

 

it is to find the key images that will govern my visual representation of the action through 

blocking and design.  

• Sensorial Questions 

o World: A nightmare 

o Sound: a fugue, distortion, loops, a loud silence, church bells 

o Space: Cold, oppressive, brutalist architecture, geometric, industrial venue to be 

embraced 

o Lights: Dramatic Shadows, lurking, beams of light 

o Costume: Stiffness in the seemingly soft, oppressively elegant, high fashion 

At this point in the text work, the focus is given fully to what will help me build the 

world the characters inhabit through design and clear visualization. This was the basis of what I 

shared with the designers at our first production meeting: deliberately nonspecific to prevent 

being restrictive but focused enough to inspire them in the right direction. 

 

• Character: wants overall and per scene 

• Beatrice-Joanna  

o Wants: Agency. To control of her future.  

o 1.1 church- wants to talk to Alsemero// wants to make him stay 

o 2.1 to delay her wedding  

o 2.2 to prevent Alsemero from giving up on her, ignite him? / find a way to be 

together/ seduce De Flores into killing Alonzo 



30 

 

o 3.2 (work to be able to marry Alsemero: first her father then De Flores) rid 

herself of De Flores 

o 4.1 to prepare for her wedding’s consummation/ to preserve her image and 

Alsemero’s love/ to test Diaphanta and use her  

o 4.2 to convince Alsemero she is a virgin 

o 5.1 to protect her honour/ to replace Diaphanta in her husband’s bed/ to have 

Diaphanta killed/ to seem innocent 

o 5.3 to sooth Alsemero/ to confess/ to earn forgiveness/ to tell the truth 

 

• Diaphanta/ (Joanna 1; Madwoman 1) 

o Wants: To move up in life. To enjoy a good life 

o 1.1 set up B-J/ Find herself a date 

o 2.2 watch over B-J 

o 4.1 to find B-J/ to convince B-J she can sleep with Alsemero for her 

 

• Isabella  

o Wants: her partner to respect her. Freedom. 

o 3.1 to entertain herself in spite of her husband and situation/ challenge her 

husband 

o 4.3 to recruit Lollio to her side/ to test Antonios love 

o 5.2 to be heard/ reveal the truth 

 

• Servant/ (Joanna 2; Madwoman 2) 



31 

 

o Wants: to keep order/ do her job 

o 4.2 to fix the situation 

 

• Livia/ (Joanna 3; Madwoman 3) 

o Wants to protect/help Antonio 

o 1.2 keep Antonio safe/ help with his plan 

 

• De Flores  

o Wants BJ. Fuck her, control her, own her. 

o 1.1 to vex B-J (have his will) 

o 2.1 to have B-J “rail at him” 

o 2.2 to fuck her, whatever it takes/ to trap her/ to kill Alonzo 

o 3.2 claim his prize/ take her virginity 

o 4.2 to dismiss Tomazo (not raise suspicion) 

o 5.1 to convince B-J she needs him/ tie her to him/ kill Diaphanta/ to show off 

to B-J 

o 5.3 to dismiss Alsemero/ to silence B-J/ to have the final word/ to shame her/ 

to die on his own terms 

 

• Vermandero  

o Wants: to create a legacy. To move up his good name 

o 1.1 to tell B-J to get ready for a wedding within this fortnight// to 

honour/impress/welcome/receive his friend's son. 



32 

 

o 2.1 to set up the perfect wedding 

o 3.2 to impress his guests 

o 4.2 to preserve his good name/ guilt Tomazo 

o 5.1 to have order again 

o 5.2 to make amends with Tomazo 

o 5.3 to reveal his discovery/ to mourn 

 

• Alsemero 

o Wants: to marry Beatrice Joanna. To be the hero of a fairy-talesque romance 

o 1.1 wants B-J to love him 

o 2.2 to prove his love to B-J 

o 3.2 to impress Vermandero/ BJ 

o 4.2 to be a proper host (greet)/ to test B-J 

o 5.1 to protect B-J/ be a proper husband 

o 5.3 to have B-J confess/ to shame her/ to punish her/ to keep his own good 

name/ to expose B-J and De Flores/ to re-establish order 

 

• Jasperino 

o Wants to help Alsemero (?) 

o 1.1 to bed Diaphanta  

o 4.2 to out B-J/ to convince Alsemero she is unfaithful 

o 5.3 have Alsemero break up with B-J 

 



33 

 

• Alonzo/ Madman 

o Wants to Marry B-J 

o 2.1 to please his soon to be father in law and fiance/ defend B-J's honour  

o 2.2 to be shown the secrets of the castle (why?) 

 

• Alibius 

o Wants to control Isabella and thrive 

o 1.2 to have Lollio guard Isabella 

o 4.3 to prepare for the biggest gig in his life 

o 5.2 get in favour with the big shots 

 

• Lollio 

o Wants to have fun and get money 

o 1.2 to fool his master? To get money? 

o 3.1 impress Isabella? 

o 4.3 to revenge himself on the fake madmen for making a fool of him/ to 

present the perfect morris 

 

• Franciscus 

o Wants to seduce Isabella 

o 3.1 to make Isabella fall for him and revenge himself on Lollio 

o 4.3 to win Isabella’s love  

 



34 

 

• Antonio 

o Wants to seduce Isabella 

o 1.2 to be admitted and unsuspected as “an idiot” 

o 3.1 to make Isabella fall for him 

o 4.3 to fit in/ to establish dominance/ Isabella to forgive him  

 

• Tomazo 

o Wants to revenge his brother 

o 2.1 to convince Alonzo to break up with B-J 

o 4.2 to make Vermandero confess/ find out what happened to his brother 

o 5.2 to revenge his brother 

o 5.3 to find closure 

 

Listing character wants is the part of text work that I finalized after cuts, in preparation 

for rehearsal. I focus my character work by shifting into an actor-centric perspective and looking 

at the objectives and wants of each character. I focus on sticking to verbs and making every want 

have a cap on another character1. I never give these notes out to the actors, or, as a matter of fact, 

consult this sheet during the process (though I will ask the actors for their input, and challenge 

 

1 This refers to the practice of considering every objective to have “a cap” or an end, on the other character: there is 

something the other character can say or do that would fulfil my objective. Example that does not have a cap: “I 

want appreciation” vs an example with a cap “I want you to say you love me.” Objectives with a cap on the other 

character raise the stakes and create more interesting dynamics on stage. 



35 

 

them to be more specific if their initial answer isn’t putting them into action). This is part of the 

work to prepare and then forget about: it allows me to understand each character’s perspective 

and be better prepared to assist my actors whenever they struggle finding their motivation. 

 Beyond preparing me to assist the actors using the tools of their trade and their 

vocabulary, this process helps me streamline very complex humans, which is essential to achieve 

clarity in performance. For example, before listing all of Beatrice-Joanna’s wants, I had not truly 

realized what a great proportion of her actions have their cap on Alsemero. There was much 

more love and romance to this story than I initially realized. On the other hand, it also highlights 

challenges: characters like Tomazo enter with a small variation on the same want in every scene: 

bringing out what makes each of these different and how he progresses is pivotal for the arc of 

the story. Katie Mitchell defends text work as a fundamental element to “ensure you have an 

objective relationship to the play” (11). While I am not convinced that this is possible, careful 

text work brings out aspects and challenges of the text that an initial passionate reading may 

obfuscate.  

 I have moved away from gathering information on what is said by other characters, in 

particular for this production, as a means to honour the facts: people are what they do, not what 

they say about themselves and even less what is said about them. This is part of the way in which 

I aim to do Beatrice-Joanna justice. I look at what she and those around her do, not what is said 

about them. In this play in particular this is essential, as there are several significant actions 

happening offstage that are interpreted through the (biased) eyes of those watching. In 4.2, for 

example, Jasperino overhears Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores’s voices in another room and 

chooses to listen in (a choice that already speaks more to his character than hers). Jasperino 

describes what happened as “words pass’d/ Like those that challenge interest in a woman” (4.2 



36 

 

The Changeling, edited script)2 and their immediate conclusion is that Beatrice must be having 

an affair. When we consider the bluntness of the text, there is no evidence to assume that more 

than words passed between them. Beyond that, the fact that the words used are “challenge 

interest in a woman” implies that it is De Flores who is interested/could provoke her interest, and 

this still does not lead Alsemero and Jasperino to question why De Flores would be hitting on the 

young daughter of his boss, or even ask Beatrice-Joanna what she was talking to De Flores 

about. We must note too that one these men, Alsemero, keeps potions around to test women’s 

virginity and apparently has a habit of doing so, as evidenced in the same scene when Alsemero 

describes that the potion “has that secrete virtue it ne’er miss’ed sir/ upon a virgin.” These are 

also men who speak of women as vessels to be boarded, as Jasperino does in 1.1 when 

describing Diaphanta in an aside, when the characters are themselves and not putting on masks to 

other characters. It is not at all surprising that characters who objectify and dehumanize women 

as they do would immediately jump to the conclusion that she must be cheating.  

Giving much credibility to what a character says of another is a trap, in spite of it being 

an old text analysis practice. Characters’ biases affect their perspective of the facts and lead them 

to build their own narratives. If these are left unchallenged, the problematic choices in staging I 

seek to subvert are the result. I focus on what characters want and what they do.  

 

2 All quotations from The Changeling, unless otherwise specified, will be from the adapted script included in the 

appendix. 



37 

 

 

Figure 7 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna (Promotional Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



38 

 

2.2 Contextual Research 

This section includes excerpts from key materials I studied in preparation for this 

production, a discussion of the questions that led me to them, and an overall reflection on the 

applied effect of the research materials in production. Research for production is often about 

world building. That I have lived with this text for a decade before coming to perform it, allied 

with my expressionistic focus, meant my research was about turning conceptual questions into 

practical considerations of staging instead of realist world building research that would include 

historic and geographical contextual information. 

 

2.2.1 The Grotesque 

The madhouse dance immediately evoked the grotesque to me. That led me on quest to  

better understand the grotesque and discover how important the morris and madhouse subplot at 

large may be. What I found to be the most useful resource on the subject, history and application 

of the grotesque in the arts was Grotesque by Justin Edwards and Rune Graulund. It explains that 

the uncanny and grotesques are closely related and can produce a range of responses: “The 

grotesque has the power to move from the material world into the uncanny realm of mystery 

through its experience of disorientation, bewilderment, confusion and bafflement” (5-6). The 

idea of something uncannily familiar speaks immediately to the experience of Beatrice-Joanna 

and my nightmarish impression of this script. Disorientation, bewilderment, confusion and 

bafflement are also great choreographic start points for the madman morris.  



39 

 

Figure 8 A moment of the Madmen Morris. Aoife McAndless-Davis, Chantal Gering, Genevieve Guimond, 

Nicco Graham and Connor Riopel as madpeople, Monica Bowman as Isabella (Set by Luis Belassai; 

Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres) 

Next, Edwards and Graulund pose perhaps the most significant consideration for this 

production how the grotesque’s break with the normal leads us to question what is normal and 

abnormal. Further, they speak to my rebellious soul saying that: 

We must remember that normalization is a powerful discourse for control and 

institutionalization, for dominant institutions sanction certain forms of 

‘normalcy’, and this always comes at the expense of others, which are constituted 

by contrast as abnormal, inferior or even shameful. This lack of ‘normalcy’, 

indeed the very idea of normality itself, can lead to an uneven distribution of 

shame in people’s lives, resulting in the negative consequences of exclusion, 



40 

 

demonization and even violence. In this, the grotesque can criticize the idea that 

there is some ethically compelling aspect to ‘normality’ by suggesting that the 

normal range is simply a statistical category to which there is no ethical obligation 

to correspond. If normal just means within a common statistical range, there is no 

reason to be normal or not (10).  

The production consideration that this view brought to the fore was the question of when the real 

world becomes more grotesque and bewildering than the madhouse. Isabella speaks of the 

madmen sounding almost jealous of their freedom, which is, indeed, a fleeting concept for most 

characters in this world. This was my first clue that the mad people should be recognizable 

others. 

The main practical outcome of this reading was a production question that I took to our 

design team and actors repeatedly and that we wrestled with from day one through the run: what 

are the walls of this world? What is normal and what is not? What and who is permitted and who 

is erased and suppressed? At this point already, I realized how thick the tangle the grotesque was 

sewing in between the plot and subplot: the idea that an uneven distribution of shame leads to 

violence and that there are no ethics in the categorization of what is normal and accepted is 

shared in both the main and sub plots in how the burden of “shame” and “good names” are 

carried disproportionately by the women, who become victims of various forms of violence as a 

result of this uneven distribution of guilt. 

This also made me realize how much closer Beatrice-Joanna and Isabella are to sharing in 

the same fate of the mad people. I had an early inkling of a madhouse filled with hysteric women 

patients; indeed, the request by the doctor Alibius to have Lollio summon Isabella to see the mad 

people dance in 3.2 is a threat: this is what happens to the defiant (including defiant wives). The 



41 

 

spectacle of the oppression of the vulnerable is the normal and the expected punishment for 

deviants, as “the grotesque returns as the repressed of the political unconscious, as those hidden 

cultural contents which by their abjection had consolidated the cultural identity of the 

bourgeoisie” (Edwards and Graulund 14). My goals align with the unearthing and questioning of 

the political unconscious. 

 

2.2.2 PTSD and Sexual Assault 

To focus a production on the embodiment of trauma means additional research on 

trauma itself is necessary: clear, articulate, performable descriptions that we can manage as 

objectively as humanly possible to prevent drawing from our own trauma, while remaining 

grounded in the reality and psychology of it. For this reason, the most useful sources turned out 

to be the less formal ones: aimed at victims or from the perspective of victims. Such sources, in 

opposition to scientific journals, keep it human. Psychologist Ph.D. Elyssa Barbash wrote an 

informative article for Psychology Today that explained in succinct language the victim’s 

experience: 

94% of women who are raped experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 

symptoms in the two weeks following the assault. …  These symptoms generally 

include: Intrusive re-experiencing (through memories or reminders) of the assault;  

avoidance of trauma-related stimuli or reminders; alterations in thoughts and 

mood (negative thinking and depressed, anxious, or angry mood); increased 

arousal and reactivity (anxiety, hyper vigilance, irritability, easily startled). 

The re-experiencing is tied directly to the actions the Joannas performed in the psychological 

realm whenever Beatrice experienced anything that would be triggering post-assault. These were 



42 

 

mapped in advance, but also discussed and modified through rehearsals with the actors we made 

choices as to when  we performed an action that was the re-experiencing of the assault and what 

moments they express the feelings Beatrice couldn’t (such as discomfort in someone’s presence, 

tension, and the imperative to perform normalcy). The alterations in thought and mood, arousal 

and reactivity are key to understanding Beatrice’s actions after the assault: she has had very little 

time to process everything, she is in survival mode, confused, anxious and hyper vigilant. The 

shifts Beatrice experiences in scene 5.1 when Beatrice waits Diaphanta’s return from Alsemero’s 

bed are a perfect example of this. Diaphanta is late and Beatrice-Joanna is anxious, easily 

convinced the sun is rising (though the clock has merely struck two). Her famous line “I am 

forced to love thee now,” when De Flores manipulates her into believing he is her only hope, is a 

perfect example of trauma response when she is on an emotional roller coaster, making 

extremely rash decisions (such as killing Diaphanta), turning to De Flores for advice, and trying 

to convince herself to love him, bordering on turning to fawning as a coping strategy.3 

  Barbash also speaks of dissociation, having flashbacks to traumatic events (again, 

applied in the action of the Joannas) and provides two examples of what dissociation may look 

like: “feeling that you’re briefly losing touch with events going on around you (similar to 

daydreaming) [and] “blanking out” or being unable to remember anything for a period of time. 

This turned into a transition decision for 4.1, the moment she processes what has happened to her 

 

3  See text in appendix 5.1. I say border-line because I believe Beatrice-Joanna never quite gets to that stage, 

as in 5.3 she speaks of De Flores as her “loathing” and a “thing of hate” and even on her death bed, still tries to work 

to get Alsemero’s forgiveness, only ever addressing De Flores to say that “her loathing was professed to the rest but 

ne’er believed.”  



43 

 

that takes place immediately after her wedding.4 In the moment, we had a flash-black out. We 

then added a couple more at pivotal moments, such as after hearing Diaphanta’s scream as she is 

murdered in 5.1 and at the end of the show.   

 I also provided my actors playing Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores an article written by a 

domestic abuse survivor who outlines the steps through which victims are manipulated to the 

point that their sense of reality is deeply compromised, titled “8 Steps That Explain Why Women 

Stay in Abusive Relationships” by Crystal Sanchez. I had shared this article before when 

working in another Middleton production about domestic violence, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and the 

actors found it very useful in empathizing with a situation that we may, thankfully, have a 

difficult time understanding: the motivation and decision-making process of a character who is in 

a situation of abuse and acting against their and our better judgments. The steps Sanchez 

identifies are 1) assault on identity (you are worthless), 2) establishment of guilt (this is your 

fault), 3) self-betrayal (making choices that are harmful to well being), and 4) breaking point 

(you are crazy, this never happened). This being a tragedy, however, we never get to the next set 

of steps under the category, “Possibility of Salvation.” In this case, it was quite easy to trace De 

Flores’ actions and their impact on Beatrice-Joanna, to list a few: “Though thou writ’st maid, 

thou whore in thy affection,/ ‘Twas changed from thy first love, and that’s a kind/ of whoredom 

in thy heart” (3.2);  2)”Why, are not you as guilty in, I’m sure/ as deep as I?” (3.2); 3) In 

response to Alsemero hearing the he had slept with Diaphanta on his consummation night: “Yes, 

 

4  See text in appendix 4.1’s speech “This fellow has undone me endlessly”  



44 

 

and the while I coupled with your mate/ at barley-break;” (5.3), which we know is a lie, as we 

watched scene 5.1, which happens while the consummation happens offstage. 

 

2.2.3 Trauma and Healing 

The most useful source for feeding my vision and purpose, which fuels the entire 

creative process and every decision made along the way, was trauma psychiatrist and researcher 

Judith Herman’s Trauma and Healing. Herman argues that the emerging awareness of domestic 

and sexual violence is the third time in the century that a form of psychological trauma surfaced 

into public consciousness, and that, each time, it was associated to a political movement. The 

first was hysteria, the second combat neurosis, and the last is sexual and domestic violence, with 

“its political context [--] the feminist movements in Western Europe and North America” 

(9).  Herman is writing before the western feminist movement gained notoriety with the online 

dissemination of #metoo. The #metoo movement pulled aside a veil to reveal the insidiousness 

of the issue in the entertainment industry and on campuses—both the determining frameworks 

my production was working within—exemplified best in Harvey Weinstein, convicted at last 

after years and dozens of testimonies from his victims; and Brock Turner, who was caught in the 

act of violating an unconscious woman on Stanford’s campus and who served half a year’s 

sentence5.  

These events are part of our collective consciousness: the students in the cast, crew and 

audiences, members of this industry and women everywhere share in the fear and trauma of 

 

5   See New York Times article “Brock Turner Loses Appeal to Overturn Sexual Assault Conviction” for 

details. 



45 

 

existing in a world where this is their lived experience. In staging a play about sexual assault and 

knowing that 1 in 3 women experience sexual violence in their lifetime6, one must be conscious 

that beyond a great political issue, this is a deeply personal matter for far too many of us. 

Herman explains that studying psychological trauma, and by extension, witnessing it embodied 

in performance, is to come to face both with human vulnerability and human capacity for evil, 

and “when the traumatic events are of human design, those who bear witness are caught in the 

conflict between victim and perpetrator. It is morally impossible to remain neutral in this 

conflict. The bystander is forced to take sides” (Herman 7). 

I have been interested in the role of the bystander for quite some time, having explored it 

as the central focus in my production of Middleton’s A Yorkshire Tragedy. Wrestling with the 

role of the bystander is key to breaking cycles of abuse and creating support networks. Audience 

members come to the theatre to be willing bystanders, witnessing, responding, and having their 

responses witnessed as well. Conscious of that, my Changeling was to be very difficult to 

witness, because I am asking the audience to understand a very imperfect victim in a vicious 

society and question their morals around agency, justice, sexism, and punishment. Imperfect 

victims have the odds set doubly against them, as “it is very tempting to take the side of the 

perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal 

desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the 

burden of pain” (Herman 7). My goal became to make the audience share the burden of her pain, 

 

6   World Health Organization, 2016, quoted in Carleton’s Sexual Assault Support page. 



46 

 

of our pain: to force them to hear what is playing in her head, for it engulf and surround them as 

much as it does her.  

Herman clarifies that the natural response to atrocities is to banish them from 

consciousness; they become unspeakable, but “remembering and telling the truth about terrible 

events are the pre-requisites for both the restoration of the social order and the healing of 

individual victims” (1).  Therapy itself is based on the power of speaking the unspeakable, 

because immense power and creative energy is released when the barriers of denial and 

repression are lifted. Those barriers are collective when the trauma is shared. The power of 

lifting those barriers communally is what the #metoo has released. It lifted the barriers of shame 

and guilt, bringing millions of women worldwide together through a hashtag, through lawsuits, 

and through art. 

What theatre can do for survivors can be explained through Herman, as she explains: 

“The fundamental stages of recovery are establishing safety, reconstructing the trauma story and 

restoring the connection between survivors and their community” (3). Theatre is dependent on 

the human as the means of art and the connection between the performer and the individuals in 

the audience, making it the best art form through which to speak the unspeakable. This is an art 

form defined by its cathartic power: it is holy because it is a gathering where people come 

together to share an experience and exercise empathy.  We as creators have the responsibility to 

harness this power and make every rehearsal room and every theatre a space where everyone in 

the room feels safe and empowered to explore the collective trauma behind stories like The 

Changeling. In practical terms, this means that greater conscious efforts to create a safe space 

and practice safer intimacy and violence direction are needed.  



47 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna at the end of the play. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte 

Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres) 

 



48 

 

Chapter 3: To the Barber: Cutting and Adapting the Text 

Cutting and adapting the text is a non-linear process that is guided by the text work and 

research above, as well as my vision for the production. In this chapter I articulate my reasons 

for the cut and adaptation, my overall process, and discuss some of the main decisions made in 

editing the text. 

 

3.1 “If you are not doing the playwright’s play, just write your own” and other such 

excuses artists give themselves  

There are still several traditionalists who often voice criticisms of editing and 

adapting as attempts by directors to become or undermine the playwright. Their argument 

assumes a supremely hierarchical understanding of theatre that is limiting and outdated and 

particularly inappropriate if one attempts, as such artists often claim to, to “honour the 

playwright.”7 

 One of the most appealing aspects of early modern scripts to me is that they hold no 

pretense to exist as a novel, complete in itself. In fact, they were not written by sole geniuses 

looking to publish and be immortalized by a far stretch. The idea for a play was pitched to a 

company or lead actor, if there was interest, a plot was provided, collaboration was set, foul 

papers, filled with blots, cross-outs, and scribbles were handed over, and taken to a scribe who 

made “corrections” and turned it into a fair copy (that went to the Master of the Revels). It was 

 

7 Terry McCabe’s Misdirecting the Play: An Argument Against Contemporary Theatre, for example, is written 

entirely based on that premise. In his first chapter, titled “The Myth of the Director” he states: "The premise of this 

book is simple: directing that seeks to control the text, instead of subordinating itself to the text, is bad directing. I 

believe the director's job is to tell the playwright's story as clearly and as interestingly as possible. Period." 

 



49 

 

then the company’s property, which would add stage directions and make modifications as they 

wished. There are many degrees of separation between the writers’ foul papers (which don’t 

survive, as they were not deemed worth preserving) and what comes to us as printed copies.8 

Beyond scribe and company changes to the text, there are also changes done by printers 

and editors through the years. One aspect I find particularly relevant which Leah Marcus 

discusses in “The Shrew as Editor/Editing Shrews,” is how an editor’s choice can affect the 

perceived meaning of the text. The distribution of asides, unmarked in the early modern text, is 

crucial because a character with asides is in closer connection with the audience and is more 

likely to get the audience “on their side.” There are also spelling related disputes due to the less-

structured early modern spelling that render “Mistress” or “Master” both possible in many lines 

and choosing who is addressed can change the narrative significantly. If we consider these in 

addition to editing, years of selectively controlled academia and staging interpretations, we are 

left with the question of whose story we are really telling and whose agenda we are really 

supporting when we blindly adhere to the text as an almighty relic.  

Clearly, any attempt to revert to an “original text” and single out what may have been a 

playwright’s intention is futile at best and of questionable relevance to contemporary audiences. I 

stage and edit according to my belief that to honour an early modern playwright is to keep their 

work inspiring, keep it collaborative, and keep it relevant. Whether in historic costume and using 

an uncut text, or set in mars and running at 30 minutes, choices in casting, blocking, fabric, and 

 

8  For further historical information see Shakespeare's Professional Career by Peter Thomson and 
Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe by Roger Chartier. 

   



50 

 

delivery, to name a few, will create meaning and reflect the artists who are making those choices.  

To hide behind the “playwright’s intention” is cowardly.  

 

3.2 Trim to Tighten 

My process of editing begins with the choice of base text. I chose Douglas Buster’s 

edition, included in Taylor and Lavagnino’s collection of the complete works of Middleton, as 

this is the most recent edition of the play and part of the only Middleton-centric collection. The 

process of cutting and editing is based on the action analysis flowcharts included in chapter 2 to 

preserve clarity. This work happens in waves: I go through the text multiple times making small 

changes, move on to the next stage of editing, then go back and edit again based on previous 

steps. The steps are then categorized not according to the order in which they happen, but a 

similarity in the decision-making process.  

The first step is trimming: eliminating repetition, excessive descriptions of actions we are 

to witness onstage, removing outdated and obscure passages, and limiting thematic diversions 

that are not related to the action of the play or Beatrice’s trauma. Obscure and outdated 

references are the quickest ways to lose an audience. This is not to underestimate our audiences, 

but to avoid setting them up for failure. I aim at an inclusive audience that includes those who 

will not necessarily have the expertise to follow Latin lines, classical mythology, and Jacobean 

history. The way in which to pick my battles here ties back to the base principles outlined: is it 

pivotal to the action or Beatrice’s trauma? If so, I will work to make it clear for my audience. If 

not, I may work it out or adjust it. I would include many of Franciscus speeches in this category 

of editing. When not cut out entirely, I took the liberty to adjust references to more accessible 

ones. This passage, in 3.1, for example, on the unedited draft, reads: 



51 

 

LOLLIO 

For love, mistress. He was a pretty poet too, and that set him forwards first; the Muses 

then forsook him, he ran mad for a chambermaid, yet she was but a dwarf neither. 

FRANCISCUS 

Hail bright Titania! 

Why stand'st thou idle on these flowery banks? 

Oberon is dancing with his dryads. 

I'll gather daisies, primrose, violets, 

And bind them in a verse of poesy. 

LOLLIO 

Not too near, you see your danger. 

FRANCISCUS 

Oh, hold thy hand, great Diomed! 

Thou feed'st thy horses well, they shall obey thee. 

Get up; Bucephalus kneels. [Gets down on all fours.] 

 

After edits, this section in 3.1 reads: 

LOLLIO 

For love, mistress. The Muses forsook him; he ran mad for a chambermaid. [Showing 

him a whip] Not too near, you see your danger. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Oh, hold thy hand! 



52 

 

Thou feed'st thy horses well, they shall obey thee. 

Get up; I kneel. [Gets down on all fours.] 

This keeps the core idea of the moment: the important information that Franciscus is mad for 

love is preserved and isolated, the action of approaching Isabella, being intimidated away, and 

kneeling in submission to Lollio is now no longer obfuscated by superfluous imagery.  

The second step is focusing and tightening. This step is more directly related to the 

conscious choice of whose story I am telling. This led to cuts of larger sequences that were not 

central to Beatrice-Joanna's story and it is where the play was really shortened. For example, 

Tomazo's scenes seeking revenge and his related interactions with De Flores were cut to prevent 

turning this play into a revenge tragedy from a minor character. In their first interaction, for 

example, the cuts keep one instance of the memory of the murder coming back to De Flores, one 

attempt to escape the conversation looking for Beatrice-Joanna, and one instance of Tomazo's 

blind faith in De Flores: 

 Enter Deflores. 

 TOMAZO 

 The best is, 

  There is more ground to meet a man's revenge on. 

 Honest Deflores. 

 DEFLORES 

 That's my name indeed. 

 Saw you the bride? Good sweet sir, which way took she? 



53 

 

 TOMAZO 

 I have blest mine eyes from seeing such a false one. 

 DEFLORES 

 [Aside] I'd fain get off; this man's not for my company: 

 I smell his brother's blood when I come near him. 

 TOMAZO 

 Come hither, kind and true one; I remember 

 My brother lov'd thee well. 

 DEFLORES 

 Oh, purely, dear sir! 

 [Aside] Methinks I am now again a-killing on him, 

 He brings it so fresh to me. 

 Saw you the bride? Good sweet sir, which way took she?   (added from above) 

 TOMAZO 

 Thou canst guess, sirrah, 

 One honest friend has an instinct of jealousy 

 At some foul guilty person. 

 DEFLORES 

 'Las, sir, 

 I am so charitable, I think none 

 Worse than myself. You did not see the bride then? 



54 

 

 TOMAZO 

 I prithee name her not. Is she not wicked? 

 DEFLORES 

 No, no, a pretty, easy, round-pack'd sinner, 

 As your most ladies are, else you might think 

 I flatter'd her; but, sir, at no hand wicked 

 Till th'are so old their sins and vices meet, 

 And they salute witches. I am call'd, I think, sir. 

 [Aside] His company ev'n o'erlays my conscience. 

 Exit. 

In the following interaction in 5.2, when Tomazo comes back and claims to renounce all league 

with mankind, his entire interaction with De Flores was cut and his interaction with Vermanero 

reduced to one page. The exchange of offences and Tomazo's escalated despair is an interesting 

journey for his character, but all we need for the central action is that his presence escalates the 

urgency to find Alonzo's murderer, and that Beatrice is further entrapped by this. I recognize that 

in this cut, some of De Flores' guilty conscience asides are also lost. I confess no guilty 

conscience in reducing the number of asides he has, for allowing a charming abuser a more 

sympathetic place overemphasizing potentially “redeeming qualities” when staging his victim’s 

nightmare is repugnant. 

 In the final stage, I edit for elegance and rhythm. This is when lines tend to be added 

back, when scenes merge or break, and where meter and line breaks are re-visited. At this stage I 

consolidated the murder scene from Alonzo's request to see the castle straight through the 



55 

 

stabbings (originally 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2), particularly because the audience should not get to exhale 

until after it is done: the expeditiousness of all of it should be just as jarring to the audience as it 

is to the characters living it. But this is also the stage where I re-gain length, as language is not 

always about immediacy and directness, Elizabethan and Jacobean scripts are often described as 

“word plays” for this reason. A speech where I went back on cuts significantly, for instance, was 

Beatrice-Joanna's speech to Alsemero, when he offers to challenge Alonzo to a duel in 2.1. My 

original cuts were the text stroked through; the also underlined text was re-added: 

 BEATRICE 

 How? Call you that extinguishing of fear 

 When 'tis the only way to keep it flaming? 

 Are not you ventured in the action 

 That's all my joys and comforts? Pray no more, sir. 

 Say you prevail'd, [you're] danger's and not mine then: 

 The law would claim you from me, or obscurity 

 Be made the grave to bury you alive. 

 I'm glad these thoughts come forth; oh, keep not one 

 Of this condition, sir! Here was a course 

 Found to bring sorrow on her way to death: 

 The tears would ne'er 'a' dried till dust had chok'd 'em. 

 Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage, 

 And now I think on one--  

These lines do not add new information or essential action, but in Beatrice-Joanna's story, her 

love for Alsemero, the man she will risk and lose everything for, is key and the beauty of her 



56 

 

urgency when faced with the thought of losing him is key. That is revealed in the alliteration of 

sharp consonants; in thoughts that won't fit the pentameter and the consequent chopped sounds 

from abbreviations; in the antithesis; in the sensorial imagery;  and all of this is conveyed in one 

single line: “The tears would ne'er 'a' dried till dust had chok'd 'em.” The language can be 

spectacularly rich and do a lot of work for an actor requiring only clarity on their part. 

 After the three stages are completed, I do a punctuation check, revising the script using 

three different editions and checking on spelling and punctuation, making decisions where the 

editors disagree according to my own judgment.  

 



57 

 

Chapter 4: An Expressionistic Nightmare 

I primarily labelled this production an expressionistic nightmare. After the numerous 

nightmares this play gave me, it seemed only fitting that my personal starting point would be the 

haunting familiarity that this play had to me. Yet, as I argued in chapter 1, this is a collective 

trauma and a shared nightmare. Building Beatrice-Joanna’s nightmare to be specific to her 

character’s given circumstances while preserving the uncanny familiarity to our world was a 

shared concern of staging and design. My goal was to go beyond a patchwork of worlds, 

exploring their common ground: the emotional experience of her struggles. I aimed at 

externalizing what words fail to express with the use of what the other senses can offer us. 

Ultimately, I hoped that we may understand Beatrice through a shared emotional experience of 

trauma. 

The unspeakable, what words fail to express, and what we sought to embody in this 

production, is evidently not best suited to be explained in this form. Here, I will provide the key 

points and highlight the process my creative team and I went through in structuring the 

unistructural, and what were the most important and striking choices in staging that evolved from 

that concept. 

 

4.1 Structured Chaos 

Creating structure for a visceral experience may seem contradictory, but it is in fact 

essential. Artists ought to be selective and precise; if the environment isn’t right, the seed isn’t 

planted, and the production bears no fruits. 



58 

 

Punctuating the action of the play with expressions of Beatrice’s internal struggle, the use 

of movement, the combined changes in atmosphere, the space and dress aesthetics, each through 

their medium, worked to create the vicious entrapment of the main character. The production 

was built to be triggering, the design and staging done to provoke in the audience the closest to 

experiencing PTSD while still following a narrative. 

To this end, we worked to discover through Beatrice’s eyes the rules of this world, how it 

combines Jacobean and contemporary elements, the social structure and the rules of this society, 

and to both bare and deconstruct them, underlining the elements that have the greatest impact in 

her emotional life. Further examples will be discussed as I address each element of performance. 

The structural separation between a material world, where the action of the play took 

place, and a psychological realm, where the Joannas existed, was central. The worlds and 

characters were to be visually distinct. After the rape in 3.3, the nightmare world consumed the 

material reality and the nightmare would be complete.  

 

4.2 Movement and Joannas 

Movement is integral to my work, because it is integral to storytelling and capable of 

evoking more than words can. Dancer and dance scholar Susan Foster’s most articulate 

performed lecture “Reflections on Kinesthetic Empathies and the Politics of Compassion” 

explains the concept of kinesthetic empathy addressing the question of how a body witnessing 

another body might imagine what it is feeling, using the example of a an audience member 

observing a tight rope dancer in a precarious positioning: “The viewer experiences the stirring up 

of emotions that instinctually arises when we see those like ourselves in peril.” Foster discusses 

theories like that of John Martin that suggested that upon viewing another person our kinesthetic 



59 

 

senses kick in and we mimic in the   musculature and nerves of our own bodies, sometimes 

imperceptibly, the physical actions and sensations of the body that we see before us. John Martin 

believes that “viewers comprehend the meaning of a dance through their capacity for inner 

mimicry” (Foster). Foster reminds us of other familiar body responses, such as puckering when 

we watch someone else taste lemons or the famously contagious yawns: bodies can elicit 

kinesthetic responsiveness. We perceive and sense what the other body does and, as Foster 

would say, we “create mutual awareness through the willingness of two differentiated bodies 

laboring together at the impossible task of approximating one another.”  

This ability of our bodies to effortlessly and unconsciously approximate and replicate 

what we witness another body experience is what draws me to movement. Specifically, I am 

drawn to movement created instinctively, abstracting and expanding on the impulses we cannot 

follow in everyday life.  In my approach, I work my performers to liberate their bodies, do warm 

ups to allow them to move in unexpected ways, to respond physically to each other’s impulses, 

to create quickly enough that they are not able to overthink, or think at all, about what their 

movement means. Then I work with them to select the strongest visuals, sharpen the lines and 

establish rhythm to best evoke a visceral response. We work to find in ourselves the full 

expression of an impulse than in Realistic acting would be easily suppressed or suggested subtly 

at best and easily missed by an audience member and, instead, we bring it to the forefront. In my 

production, this aligns with the aim for the audience to experience what Beatrice-Joanna 

experiences; expressionistic movement, that is, movement that expands on the feelings caused by 

the situations Beatrice finds herself in, becomes central. 

My production opened with an added movement prologue, where Beatrice-Joanna was 

revealed center stage, lit by a spotlight in the colors of the psychological realm, with the Joannas 



60 

 

lit in their dedicated space, also in their specific lights, performing the repetitive actions we later 

discovered were the cleansing actions they performed immediately after the assault. This 

prologue first and foremost brings the audience into the world of the play, establishes the 

language of the production and topical focus: Beatrice Joanna’s trauma. The Joannas appeared in 

quick flashes before the assault underlining triggering moments: the red flags that women who 

have been haunted by a De Flores-like person recognize immediately, but that would not be 

noticeable to those who have not. For example, we had a flash of Joannas as De Flores goes to 

return the glove and uses it to pull Beatrice-Joanna closer to him in 1.1, in their first interaction, 

and in 2.1 while he is trying to prolong his time with her, taking advantage of his position with 

her father to creep on her continuously (the Joannas disappear once he exits the stage).   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 10 Monica Bowman as a Joanna performing a movement sequence in a Joanna booth (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 

At the moment of the assault in 3.3, the Joannas enter the space that was, thus far,  



61 

 

reserved for the action of the “material world”—this is the moment where everything changes, 

the realms are no longer easily distinguished, and trauma consumes it all. For this sequence, the 

Joannas entered the platform above in darkness, as De Flores entrapped, shushed, removed and 

ripped part of Beatrice’s clothing. The Joannas were lit immediately as De Flores backed 

Beatrice into the benches, in the moment that would be followed by penetration. This black-out 

on the lead actors allowed Bonnie (Beatrice-Joanna) to ground herself, and to undress herself to 

the limit of her comfort, with the license to alter that nightly. I also shifted the focus to the 

Joannas to deny any voyeuristic impulse from the potential De Flores sympathizers in the 

audience, combating the tradition of making a spectacle of a woman’s rape and focus on what 

matters: the violence, and the aftermath of violence. 

 At this point the Joannas began a sequence, in a crescendo, expressing Beatrice’s 

entrapment, desire to escape, and lack of bodily agency, until a standstill, when we bring the 

focus back to her. They come in neutrally and dress Beatrice for her wedding, each removing 

some of their own ruffles to dress her in a visual sharing of costume and identity, and, after that, 

the Joannas are present more often and perform longer sequences. At the last scene, when 

Beatrice is murdered, the Joannas are lit partially in the same platform they occupied during the 

assault, at about 50% brightness from the main action, until Beatrice dies and the lights go out on 

the Joannas on the upper platform, as the remaining character continue to talk around Beatrice 

and De Flores’ dead bodies and to settle a very dissatisfying end in a world with no justice, 

morals or empathy.  

 



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Figure 24 Chantal Gering, Aoife McAndless-Davis, and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas, half-lit in the platform 

during the last scene. Hayden Davies as Alsemero and Bonnie Duff as Beatrice center stage. (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 

However, coming full circle, the Joannas and Beatrice closed the play just as they opened 

in an added epilogue. I knew I wanted to end the play by underlining the irony of the last speech, 

a typical Middleton ending9, and highlight how empty the re-establishing of order is at the end. 

 

9  In both Middleton’s Women Beware Women and A Yorkshire Tragedy, the final words are given to a 

secondary character who has limited knowledge of all that surpassed, who is not the most evil in the play, but 

generally self-righteous and misinformed, and who invariably shifts the focus from those who have suffered and 

died and placing it where it is convenient for them: In Women Beware Women , the play ends with a very Jacobean 

pile of bodies, including that of a woman who was abused in very similar ways to Beatrice. The final speech 



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As through the entirety of the production, I aimed to bring the focus back to Beatrice-Joanna, 

whose body lied center stage, completely ignored, as her husband, the man she lost all for 

committing the murder he wanted to commit himself, 10 refers to her in disdain: “Here’s beauty 

changed to ugly whoredom” (Middleton 5.3) and re-stablishes a convenient new order, where he 

remains there, as her father’s heir. 

At the end of the play, I ultimately blurred the line entirely between the narrative’s world 

and the audience’s present moment to bring it back to the Joannas and Beatrice. I knew I wanted 

to have the Joannas come together and sing. To end the play with a purging, in a moment of 

healing, of sisterhood—of hope. In a way, this performs a similar function a jig would have at 

the end of a play, grounding the audience and bringing them back to their own worlds. My 

actresses chose the song, appropriately adapting the lyrics to change men to women from an 

 

attempts to erase her. In A Yorkshire Tragedy, most alarming, ignoring the wounded woman whose three children 

were murdered as she kneels suing for her husband’s life, and the speaker calls the play a tragedy about the brothers 

(the husband and a brother we never meet). The irony is always striking if you are sensitive to the contrast between 

what the words say, the images of suffering onstage and the empty words, displacing focus, trying to find a simple 

ending, where there is none.  

10  
In scene 2.2 (see appendix), when Alsemero and Beatrice-Joanna confess their love for each other, he 

proposes to send a challenge to Alonzo: “…One good service/ Would strike off both your fears./  I'll send a 

challenge to Piracquo instantly.” Beatrice stops him, afraid to lose him to death or the law, and has the idea to have 

De Flores do the deed: “Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage,/ [Aside] And now I think on one—" It is not 

taking Alonzo de Piracquo’s life that is the issue, but who has the ability, under what circumstances to do it and have 

it be socially acceptable.  

 



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anonymous poem, “There are men in the village of Erith/ Whom nobody seeth or heareth,/ And 

there looms, on the marge/ Of the river, a barge/ That nobody roweth or steereth.” When they 

began singing, all characters but Beatrice-Joanna dropped character and walked on neutrally, and 

the ring from the set came down to surround Beatrice. At that point, the women also dropped 

character—the Joannas and Monica Bowman (who played a Joanna, but in that scene was 

playing Isabella) also walking neutrally, come down to surround Beatrice, as they all sing, and 

we end with Beatrice singing by herself the lines “That nobody seeth or heareth,” honoring the 

commodified, abused, invisible women who will still fight tooth and nail for a place in this 

world.  

Foster moves beyond Martin, as she brings in how socio-historical context affects our 

empathetic response. She explains that “the empathetic response to a body’s plight is structured 

in historically specific ways to accommodate varieties of sameness that serve to rationalize the 

workings of power.” Foster claims dance can be both potentially liberating and subversive for 

evoking multiple and simultaneous frameworks for understanding difference and sameness. The 

Joannas embodied that difference and sameness, as the audience watching different bodies and 

familiar, though never exact, emotions and circumstances evoked it on an additional level. 

Foster, and I, hope that extrapolating this awareness from the studio or stage into the world we 

might “sense how power moves, when it consolidates, and where it disperses.”   

 



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4.3 Designing a Nightmare 

The basis for our design was to create “Beatrice-Joanna’s Nightmare.” The discussions 

that followed our first meeting surrounded what a nightmare looked, sounded and felt like, as we 

read and explored the play together to translate it into visual meaning. Our world was to be non-

representational, suggestive and bold: it would merge contemporary and Jacobean elements, 

never simply layering, but structurally combining elements to create a unique cohesive world 

that evokes the right feelings, but cannot and does not tempt you to make it about a specific time 

and place.  

Figure 12 Chantal Gallant, Aoife McAndless-Davis and Genevieve Guimond as Joannas and Monica Bowman as 

Isabella surround Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in the epilogue. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte 

Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



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I believe that design must be an organic part of a production and that it should transform 

as the action transforms; it should transform the action and never simply become a backdrop for 

it. Plays of the Jacobean period are very conscious of their roles as scripts and as a fragment of a 

whole, with little pretense to control design, acting, and directing (evidently, since directing in 

particular didn’t exist as we know it at that time)—they are not prescriptive, with minimal 

practical requirements and maximal suggestive elements. To honor my expressionistic goals, 

design had to take prominence in the process. 

To honor this play, the first step is to understand the walls of the world and how they act. 

The indications of space tell us a lot about it: in the first scene, we are at an open space, outside 

of church, in an open space, filled with potential. After that, we go into Alsemero’s castle, and as 

soon as we do, the walls start closing in and we move into progressively tighter spaces, from 

chambers, through alleys, to vaults. The walls keep closing in, to the point where Beatrice is 

ultimately murdered in a closet. This sense of the walls closing in was critical and handled 

primarily by the design team. 

 

4.3.1 Set  

In our first production meeting, I spoke of my love for the Chan Centre as a space and 

how you can feel its ghosts. I love a theatrical space that refuses to be hidden, so I wanted to 

embrace the architecture of the theatre. My first offer for set designer Luis Bellassai, was 

Brutalist architecture and Constructivist design. The world these characters inhabit should be 

inorganic, geometric, cold and overbearing. I was interested in negative space and the potential 

for shadows. Artificiality, claustrophobia and grandeur are key. The theatre and set should dwarf 

and entrap the individual, in the same way that the walls of the world in The Changeling 



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consume the characters: Beatrice-Joanna says “I’m in a labyrinth” (2.3), and we were working to 

create the walls of that labyrinth. 

Foster explains that Martin’s argument that objects and events can “elicit this kinesthetic 

responsiveness” and that “in walking through a building we sense its verticality and mass, the 

openness or closeness of its spaces.” Or, in other words, walking into an exceptionally vertical, 

yet contained space like the Chan Centre, can make you feel small and respond viscerally to the 

“ghosts” of the structure. Belassai, a skilled designer and architect, and I spent a lot of time in the 

space, feeling its ghosts before deciding on the configuration of the audience, entrances and use 

of levels. Our goals in this design were: to keep the audience inside the action; to make the space 

Figure 13 Visual Research of inspiration for set design shared with Belassai. The fabric and rope ones were shared on 

the second round of visual research. In a moment of serendipity, Belassai and I realized we had both been drawn and 

inspired by images of the same dance show we had not yet shared with each other at that point. 



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as intimate as possible; to make  as much of the building as possible playing space; to take 

advantage of the verticality of the theatre; to focus on Beatrice-Joanna, having the space change 

according to her journey (closing in on her); to have a versatile suggestive set that can be 

modified in no time and that the actors can interact with. 

Figure 14 Me, Director Luciana Silvestre Fernandes,  in the Chan Centre studying the space during a design 

meeting and a picture of the space, including the "donut" (octagonal structure at the catwalk level) that Belassai 

and I were drawn to. 

Belassai and I were both interested in working with a singular unifying element. The 

ropes came in later, after a sketch of Luis’ included some lines that I immediately fell in love 

with, and that echoed images of a dance show we were both inspired by. After many drafts with 

different configurations that I would then take and plan practically in terms of stage pictures, 

entrances and exits and flow (who appears above consistently vs below, etc.), we ended up with 

a space that in shape echoed a Jacobean playhouse, with a main level and a balcony, as well as 

using some non-traditional areas as playing space. The actors were at the same level of the three 

levels of audience (floor, balcony and Joanna booth on 2nd floor, Joanna booth on 3rd floor) and 

above the audience (donut). The mad people and the Joannas had their dedicated spaces around 



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the audience so that the audience was in Beatrice’s head and inside the madhouse, and 

surrounded by action, with actors occasionally coming behind them and delivering lines or 

offstage sounds from around them, below and above., The audience was as immersed in the 

action as they could be.  

The use of ropes to evoke the labyrinth resulted in a labyrinth akin to a spider’s web. The 

ropes emphasized the verticality of the space, connecting the acting booths, set, and audience 

spaces. The Joanna booths specifically were only adorned by ropes, while the material world 

used rope and wood. We tried to avoid symmetry, and broke it with the Joanna booths, but the 

play space, the material world, kept drawing us back to it. Ultimately, I think the world of order 

and strict codes of behavior asked for symmetry, as much as our aesthetics wished to deny it, the 

world of the play called for it. The scenic painting was an artwork by itself, with its blue tones 

and thorn-like black lines creating an elegant and appropriately cold and frantic environment. 

Figure 15 A progression of Luis Belassai set drafts on sketch up 



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 The rope arrangement and design were modified until the end, but they became essential 

to the transformative nature of the set, creating frames and paths, and in particular at the very end 

of the play, when the set became action, framed and drew all lines towards Beatrice, in the 

transformative purging of the epilogue.  

 

 

 

Figure 16 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice Joanna in the centre and the cast during curtain call, with all the lines 

leading to her after her death. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; 

Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 

 

 

 



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4.3.2 Costumes 

For costume designer Charlotte Chang, I presented the idea of merging the contemporary 

and Jacobean periods structurally, taking a contemporary high-fashion approach to styling. This 

production reflects the world of beautiful people, of performative status and honour. My 

challenge to Chang was to consider what the costume does to the body: what is the effect of 

having ruffles on your neck, a corset and high heels? What is the feeling of a robust elegant dress 

that makes you fill a room and draw every eye in it, but does not allow you to bend, fight or fly? 

I wanted the design to deconstruct the dress, affect and modify the body of the performer, and to 

reveal the artifice of fashion. In simpler terms, I described it as if someone had watched a fashion 

show and a Jacobean tragedy and had nightmares where it all was mixed up. For the nightmarish 

feeling, I requested a monochromatic approach, that is recognizably un-Realistic.  

   

Figure 17 Visual Research of inspiration for costume design shared with Chang at the start of the process. 



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Figure 18 Costume Sketches by Charlotte Chang for Main Plot and Subplot (including Livia, who appears in the subplot but belongs to the world of 

the main plot) 



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Chang chose red and off-red colors to represent the violence of this world. Orange and 

browns for the madhouse, sticking to warm colors and allowing the boldest color to those who 

have broken the walls of the world. Chang built on the manifestly unequal gendered dynamic, 

giving the male characters exaggerated triangular shapes, shoulder extensions, and clothes they 

could fight in, and exaggerating the hour-glass shape for the women, who were elegantly 

confined. She used a predominantly Jacobean cut with modern artificial materials and modified a 

lot of existing pieces, turning jackets into doublets and building dresses over modern summer 

base dresses.  

Chang created looks that embraced the character’s individuality from my character 

descriptions with her individual spin. For example, I described Alonzo as new-money, someone 

who would wear gold teeth if he were a rap artist in the 2000’s; he needed to be obviously not a 

match for Beatrice-Joanna. Alonzo’s fur and particularly his bright red tight vinyl pants did not 

disappoint. Diaphanta’s flirty and free nature, breaking rules were evident in her pinker outfit, 

revealing the most skin of anyone in the show and her undergarment, with her asymmetrical 

pannier. The Joannas, as aspects of Beatrice, wore the same undergarments Beatrice-Joanna did, 

each with a ruffle later passed to her, indicating something fragmented and unique about each of 

them and speaking to diverse women in the same outfit/situation/frame. Chang’s descriptive 

word for De Flores was a snake, hence his snake print pants and most prominent shoulder 

extensions.  

 

 

 

 



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Figure 20 Chantal Gering as Diaphanta (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach 

Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 

Figure 19  Kyle Preston Oliver as De Flores. (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights 

by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



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Chang built dashing dresses for Beatrice that brought out how she is seen much like a 

trophy by the men in her life. As the focal character, she was the only one who had multiple 

costumes. Her dress progression characterized both her change of “characters” from young 

heiress, to bride, to respectable (and thus covered up) wife. I will focus my analysis here on 

Beatrice’s outfits to illustrate the storytelling and world-building aspects of our costume design. 

Beatrice-Joanna’s first dress was built in bright silky red. Her corset was exposed and 

decorated with jewels over her dress, exposing and beautifying the torturous artifice of her attire, 

emphasizing how this world glorifies her restraint. Still youthful and exposing skin, in this first 

dress Beatrice’s hourglass figure is particularly exaggerated due to a wide pannier worn 

underneath and revealed at her on-stage costume change later. The added width meant Beatrice 

had to turn sideways to get through certain doors and at the top of the stairs: visually 

emphasizing a world that is built to be harder for women to navigate. 

 

Figure 21 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in her first dress. 



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Her wedding dress is the most impractical of all, tight until her knees, she needs help to 

get up and down steps and is almost mummified by fashion. At the wedding costume change, 

neck and wrist ruffles are added, serving as fabulous shackles. Added to that, an incredibly long 

veil and train that make movement particularly challenging. Beatrice-Joanna is bound into her 

elegance, her pain is barely held in by the seams. She is stunning to look at and built as more a 

vision than a human, which is a painful antithesis with what we witness her character go through. 

 In her final dress, ruffles and corset expose her bondage. Beatrice-Joanna is fully 

covered and has lost the brightness of her previous dresses and some of her glow. She is a more 

somber art piece now, in darker more closed tones, but the bright red shoes and lips are still 

present: her fiery essence is never fully consumed. 

Figure 22 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice Joanna in her Wedding dress, surrounded by the Joannas, Genevieve 

Guimond, Chantal Gering, Aoifee McAndless-Davies, and Monica Bowman (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by 

Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



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Figure 23 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna in her final dress (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte 

Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 

 

4.3.3 Lights and Sound  

This play is a fugue to me. From early on, I listened to fugues while doing text work. 

I brought that idea to sound designer Jacob Wan, as well as the suggestions of white noise and 

the occasional loud silence. In further discussions, I offered Beethoven’s Große Fuge, which 

became the base for our main plot sound design, emphasizing the distorted spiraling cat-and-

mouse deadly game of Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores. Music’s ability to evoke powerful feeling 

made it central for the expressionistic take. On par with the creation of a nightmare of trauma, 

the distortions at each Joanna appearance underlined the separation of the two realms and the 



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discomfort that their presence indicates. The use of surround sound aided in immersing the 

audience in the action and in the embodiment of trauma, as the audience could hear the repeat 

sounds, words or white noise envelop them as they did Beatrice. Wan included the amplification 

and repetition of triggering words, which added to the experience of re-living traumatic events 

associated with PTSD symptoms. 

 Light Designer Zach Levis embraced the shadows and use of dramatic colors, playing 

with shadows and controlling the perception of space. Beatrice-Joanna was always more brightly 

lit, and he truly embraced the closing in and claustrophobia as the play progressed, also 

transitioning the color palette from the nightmare into the material world post-assault. Similarly, 

to how the nightmare consumes the material world, when the subplot and main plot come 

together, the sound and lights that characterized the separation become exclusive to the main-plot 

nightmare characteristics instead. Levis suggested fluorescent paint for the phantasmagoric effect 

and we chose to bring them up after the assault; after the prolonged sequence from assault 

through wedding we have the first moment of darkness of the play, a moment of dissociation 

when Beatrice blacks out as Alsemero goes to kiss her. At that moment, the theatre went dark, all 

fell silent and the fluorescent labyrinth of lines was lit. They remained on from the assault 

onwards and were highlighted further at the next significant shift for Beatrice, when she has 

Diaphanta murdered, and at last, at the end of the play. 

 

  

 



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4.4 Rape into Wedding 

Our second design meeting working on the rape and wedding scene. This was the most 

important scene of the play, and, as a word-less scene, it was also a design show. Most of the 

design and staging decisions were made in relation to this scene. This production for me is about 

a woman stepping from being raped, immediately into getting married, and us as audience 

members, living through this with her, understanding the trauma she is experiencing and 

watching the struggle of going through the motions, surviving, and, in the struggle to survive, 

Figure 24 The ropes and fluorescent scenic painting under black light. Photo by Zach Levis 



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never fully getting to process what happened. The wedding was what she did it all for, and it is a 

moment of absolute pain. I will talk through some major decisions in building this complex 

emotional scene. 

 I choreographed the rape scene with my actors so that Beatrice-Joanna has a freeze 

reaction the moment De Flores turns her face and kisses her. At that point, we lit the Joannas in 

onto the platform, giving them half focus. They perform the same few gestures Beatrice does 

when manhandled, emphasizing the non-consensual revulsion and horror in her bodily responses. 

We amplified her fearful breath through a recorded sound effect, and we did the same when De 

Flores ripped her skirt. He walked her back into the benches he had put together for a bed. At 

Figure 25 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna and Kyle Oliver Preston as De Flores when he pulls her to him before 

undoing her corset (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier 

R. Sortres). 



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that point we switched the lights from Beatrice and De Flores center stage and lit the Joannas on 

the platform: they performed a frantic sequence on a crescendo as the white noise built, gestures 

of reaching out, trying to escape, being pulled back down until a gong stopped the entire 

sequence and brought the light back to Beatrice-Joanna. I knew from early on that I would not 

stage the entire assault but only a few gestures leading up to it to deny voyeuristic audience 

members making a spectacle of her assault. This is about honoring her pain, so we moved the 

focus to the Joannas who expressed it through their movement, rather than watching her abuser 

enjoy her pain. Coming back to see Beatrice-Joanna left as what I described on script as “a used 

mess.” We see what matters: the non-consent, her internal life through the Joannas, and the effect 

it has on her. 

In discussing the potential of using nudity with the lead actor Bonnie Duff, whom I 

wanted to have absolute authority over the question, I expressed my concern over denying the 

voyeuristic sexualizing gaze of a woman’s pain, and that if it happened, it would be a glance 

exposing vulnerability. Duff shared the same concern, but believed the vulnerability of her 

exposed body could benefit the scene, and quoted a technique we had been employing through 

the play, which I described as allowing the audience to get comfortable, laugh, then have the rug 

pulled out from under them—horrifying them with what they were comfortable with and had 

laughed at. Duff suggested that if we had such a voyeuristic audience member, the building of 

suffering would pull the rug from under them in just this way. 

We agreed to try, exposing just her breasts. At tech, the effect of the scene was brutal. I 

am very comfortable with nudity and certainly not thrown off by breasts, but even after having 

considered it for months, discussed and agreed to it, I still could not bear to watch it. The 

vulnerability of her exposed body (live) made the scene excruciating to watch. We decided to 



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keep it. When the crescendo of the Joannas reached a peak, we heard the gong bring us back to 

reality (a motif established at this moment and used throughout) and the lights went back to 

Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores: he standing, zipping his pants back up, and Beatrice-Joanna was 

lying with her breasts exposed. We had silence at this moment as De Flores slowly walked 

around, took his money bag and walked offstage. We amplified the sound of his footsteps. 

Beatrice, haunted by the loud surround footsteps begins a cleansing action and is joined by the 

Joannas, actions we used in the prologue and scattered through at flashback moments later in the 

productions, until the gong hit again. Then, Beatrice was brought back into reality, and the fact 

that it was time for her to get dressed for her wedding. 

Figure 26 Monica Bowman, Aoife McAndless-Davis, Chantal Gering and Genevieve Guimond as the Joannas, 

dress Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna and admire her in her wedding dress (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by 

Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



83 

 

We preserved the spectacle of the event, which would have been her crowning moment, 

showing all her privilege and grandeur, in contrast to how hopelessly alone and broken she is 

after her assault, still trying to go through the motions. We chose to have the costume change 

happen on stage, exposing the artifice and entrapment that dressing the part of a beautiful noble 

woman requires. The Joannas then, as her ladies-in-waiting, dressed her as she stood as a 

beautiful object being adorned on top of the benches. Beatrice could barely move her limbs and 

was puppeteered by the Joannas. Her stunning veil flies in, behind the audience, and on the 

platform the men search for the missing Alonzo and it is determined she is to marry Alsemero. 

All the while we see her being spectacularly built, her wedding music loops in surround sound, 

in a crescendo to the point of becoming a cacophony, the sound of the memories that haunt her: 

her frantic breath when De Flores first touched her, the sound of her skirt ripping. The 

amplification of triggering sounds also became a recurring motif from this point onwards. 

When Beatrice reaches the top of the stairs and is brought to marry the man of her choice, 

when there might have been a spark of hope, the footsteps begin again, we have a moment of 

suspension as De Flores enters, makes eye contact with her and laughs. This is about power. He 

has it and is making sure she knows it. He is not done. She starts the obsessive cleansing moves 

again, until the gong brings her back to reality. When Alsemero goes to kiss her, she instinctively 

retreats and flinches: touch is triggering now, even from the man of her dreams. When Alsemero 

goes in for the second time we get the dissociation effect of cutting all sound and light and seeing 

the blue light emphasis on the set that remains for the rest of the play. After the flash of black we 

heard another loud silence, when Beatrice walked down the stairs, sat at the bottom, and finally 

had a chance to be with herself and her feelings for a second at the top of 4.1 when she reflects 

on how “this fellow has undone me endlessly.” 



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 This was the scene that changed the shape of the play in action and aesthetically and the 

point where all elements converged to underline pain and entrapment.  

 

 

 

Figure 27 Bonnie Duff as Beatrice-Joanna having a moment with her feelings on top of 4.1 (Set by Luis 

Belassai; Costumes by Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



85 

 

Chapter 5: Staging Violence and Staging Consent 

I wrote in chapters 1 and 2 of my awareness of how personal the play’s subject matter 

would be to many involved in this production due to the insidiousness of gender violence, in 

particular in our industry. Creating a safe environment to explore unsafe subjects must be the 

first step of any production dealing with sexual assault. In order to do so, I provided resources 

for my actors for support available on campus and the community at large, I created and 

discussed an intimacy protocol with my actors on the first day of rehearsals, and had the cast 

discuss among themselves and communicate to me through their cast representative whether they 

preferred to have an outside intimacy choreographer join us or if they wanted me to serve in this 

role, emphasizing that regardless, the process of choreography would be collaborative and no 

choreography would be imposed.  

 My practice followed the protocol I proposed for intimacy and violence: 

• Any intimacy will be carefully choreographed in a closed rehearsal (only those 

involved, and stage management will be present for the first rehearsal). 

• Intimacy scenes will only be rehearsed with director/stage management present. 

• We will discuss the needs of the scene, the beats, important images, and escalation of 

action prior to any movement being decided on. 

• We will collaborate and work with suggestions from each other.  

• No move will be tested without explicit consent.  

o We will establish boundaries before starting and check in before each move. 



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• If at any moment you are not comfortable, or think you may grow uncomfortable with 

any move, you can simply say that “X is not sustainable for me, can we try “Y?” and 

we will work together to establish a choreography that is sustainable. No further 

explanation is needed. 

• If you ever have any concerns, please come to me (I am happy to meet in private). If I 

am part of the concern, please reach out to my supervisor, Lois Anderson. 

I guided my entire cast and the performers involved on any days we rehearsed the assault scene 

through group “come-downs,” encouraged and assisted them in finding their individual practices, 

and reserved spaces for my actors playing Beatrice and De Flores to have their individual come 

downs. No rule book is ever a substitute for listening, caring and paying attention, and I made 

sure my actors knew that the art is never more important than they are. Anyone who works under 

the assumption that the art is the most important thing in the world and expects their performers 

to sacrifice themselves is debasing art by turning it into a weapon of self-destruction. Art is 

greater than that.  

 Having staged several plays of this period, many with violent and sexual content, of all 

the practices I have developed the most important is staging consent. Just as in a fight, it is not 

seeing a punch land perfectly on another actor’s skin that sells it to an audience—it is the knap, 

the prep and final image, the motion, the vocal and physical commitment of the actors—the same 

is true for intimacy. When staging intimate violence, the similarity to a fight choreography 

makes it more straight forward than when staging a flirtatious intimate moment. In The 

Changeling, we had intimate violence, but we also had a lot of flirting. The contrast between the 

two should always be obvious. I always slow down in blocking and choreographing the lead up 

to intimate actions and break down the physical language of consent and the dance of flirtation. 



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 In Antonios and Isabella’s scene, Antonios has very little time to convince the woman he 

loves to be with him, and the urgency could lead an actor to, in aggressively pursuing his 

objective, turn a dance into a hunt. I was very specific about how Ishan Sandhu, as Antonios, 

should never advance without an invitation—If Monica Bowman, playing Isabella, retreated in 

surprise at his reveal, he can’t move closer, first he must convince her he is harmless (get on his 

knees, offer his leash, etc.). I was also very particular with Monica, whose character doesn’t 

declare her intentions as directly, about what to do with her body: if he is coming to kiss you and 

you want to be kissed, turn to him, expose your soft spots11, make sure that the audience 

members sitting immediately behind you can see your body say “yes” even if they can’t see you 

smile.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 This refers to out tendency when we feel threatened or uncomfortable to protect ourselves, and when comfortable 

and flirting to expose our vulnerable spots (think wrists and open arms vs arms crossed). 

Figure 28 Monica Bowman as Isabela and Ishan Sandhu as Antonios (Set by Luis Belassai; Costumes by 

Charlotte Chang; Lights by Zach Levis; Photo by Javier R. Sortres). 



88 

 

If this is a flirtation scene, there will be indications in the lines for physical language. For 

example, in Antonios’ line in 3.1, he responds to Isabella’s comment that he is bold saying: 

What should I fear, 

Having all joys about me? Do you smile, 

And love shall play the wanton on your lip, 

Meet and retire, retire and meet again. 

His “do you smile” is right before the end of the verse line, i.e., when the pause happens 

naturally in verse, gives the perfect opportunity for Isabella to “smile” in response, before he 

then plays the wanton on her lips and kisses her. It is also only responsible to show enthusiastic 

consent where it is possible and not refrain from allowing the women to express desire and take 

control: Isabella is a very assertive character, and makes the choice to protect Antonios, and give 

him hope saying that “If he hold on as he begins, he is like to come to something!” (Middleton 

3.1). Beyond a tradition of passive ingenues, there is no reason this character couldn’t take 

charge on their second kiss, back Antonios into the chair, hold his choker and pull him by the 

hair for their next kiss. Clarity in action and contrast are the perfect recipe for a complete 

understanding. 

 

 

 



89 

 

Chapter 6: Conclusion 

The show is dead.  

Long live the show. 

Theatre’s most striking characteristic is its ephemeral nature. The surviving evidence is 

rarely from the perspective of those who created, since as creators, we believe in the form and 

know that the impact of a show lives long after the curtain call. This production and written 

thesis bring a scarce, though desperately needed, perspective to the staging of classics and 

enriches the archival sources for theatre studies with a practitioner’s analysis. Most importantly, 

though, this production impacted hundreds of viewers, some of whom wept and some of whom 

walked away. Many women came to talk to me after the show, and one in particular, a 19-year 

old I barely knew, asked me about the nightmare vision and proceeded to tell me about her 

experience of sexual assault and how she denied herself the status of survivor for not “ticking all 

boxes.” This show was for her. Long live the show. 

I am aware I may be asking a lot when I ask an audience member to empathize with a 

privileged imperfect woman, understand her entrapment, and respect the fight in her. I do not 

underestimate the value of planting a seed; seeing a perspective entirely different from what you 

believed absolute is jarring and may be shut away with a knee-jerk reaction. Yet exposure is the 

seed of normalcy. The more the voices of survivors that are heard, the easier it becomes to 

recognize oppressors and predators and the structures that yield them power—the more the 

normal is changed. If nothing else, this show tells the persistently traditionalist audience that 

theirs is not the only voice. Long live the show. 

 



90 

 

Bibliography 

Ball, William. Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays. Southern  

Illinois University Press, 1983.  

Barbash, Elyssa. “Overcoming Sexual Assault: Symptoms and Recovery.” Psychology Today, 18  

April 2017, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trauma-and-hope/201704/ 

overcoming-sexual-assault-symptoms-recovery. Accessed on 16 March 2020. 

Brook, Peter. The Shifting Point. Harper Colling Publishers, 1987.  

Chartier, Roger. Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe. The British Library, 1999. 

Edwards, Justin and Rune Graulund. Grotesque. Routledge, 2013. 

Foster, Susan and Linda Caruso Haviland. “Kinesthetic Empathies & the Politics of  

Compassion.” Dance Workbook, 11 Sept 2011, http://danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-

foster/kinesthetic-empathies.html. Accessed on 19 April 2020. 

 “Harvey Weinstein Jailed for 23 Years in Rape Trial.” BBC. 12 March 2020. https://www.bbc. 

com/news/world-us-canada-51840532/. Accessed on 16 March 2020. 

Hauser, Christine. “Brock Turner Loses Appeal to Overturn Sexual Assault Conviction.” The  

New York Times. 9 Aug 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/brock-turner-

appeal.html. Accessed on 16 March 2020. 

Herman, Judith L. Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books, 1997. 

Marcus, Leah S. “The Shrew as Editor/Editing Shrews.” Gender and Power in Shrew Taming 

Narratives, 1500-1700. Palgrave, 2010. 84-100.  

Mitchell, Katie. The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre. Routledge, 2008. 

Sanchez, Crystal. “8 Steps that Explain why Women Stay in Abusive Relationships.” MS  



91 

 

Magazine. 11 May 2016. https://msmagazine.com/2016/05/11/8-steps-that-explain-why-

women-stay-in-abusive-relationships/. Accessed on 19 April 2020. 

“Sexual Assault Support Services.”  Carleton University. https://carleton.ca/sexual-violence- 

support/what-is-sexual-assault/getting-the-facts/. Accessed on 16 March 2020. 

Smith, Charlene. "Staging Sexual Assault Responsibly." Howl Round. 10 July 2019.  

https://howlround.com/staging-sexual-assault-responsibly?fbclid=IwAR3bTN5W 

Lav_mS_kZ0l1rXnpmhdVMrcWnOpE11Gdfd2A7-CSJ5MTyBf5gk4. Accessed on 16 

March 2020. 

Taylor, Gary and John Lavagnino. Thomas Middleton: The Collected Work. Oxford University  

Press, 2007. 

Thomson, Peter. Shakespeare's Professional Career. Cambridge University Press, 1999. 

 



92 

 

Appendix 



93 

 

The Changeling 

By Thomas Middleton and William Rowley 

Edited by Luciana Silvestre Fernandes 

 

The Scene: Alicant 

The space includes a realm of reality and a psychological realm where the Joannas 

exist. The spaces blend when she is dressed for the wedding and at the end. 

 

Dramatis Personae  

Beatrice-Joanna  

Diaphanta/ (Joanna 1; Madwoman) 

Isabella (Joanna 4) 

Servant/ (Joanna 2; Madwoman) 

Livia/  (Joanna 3; Madwoman) 

De Flores  

Vermandero  

Alsemero 

Jasperino/ (Madman) 

Alonzo/ (Madman) 

Alibius 

Lollio 

Franciscus 

Antonio 

Tomazo 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



94 

 

1.0 Prologue 

Beatrice-Joanna tears and cleanses herself, scrubbing herself violently. The 

Joannas (2, 3 and 4) appear, performing the same action. A clock strikes/ church 

bells toll. It startles her, the Joannas disappear. Lights change to the present at a 

church: Beatrice Joanna and Diaphanta. De Flores is always close by. As she 

leaves, she locks eyes with Alsemero, a moment of suspension. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



95 

 

1.1  A street near the harbor  

ALSEMERO 

'Twas in the temple where I first beheld her, 

And now again the same; what omen yet 

Follows of that? None but imaginary. 

Why should my hopes or fate be timorous? 

The place is holy, so is my intent: 

I love her beauties to the holy purpose,  

The church hath first begun our interview 

And that's the place must join us into one. 

Enter Beatrice and Diaphanta. He kisses Beatrice-Joanna's hand. Enter Jasperino. 

 

JASPERINO 

[Aside] How now! Salute a woman! He kisses too: wonderful! Where learnt he 

this? 

 

BEATRICE 

You are a scholar, sir. 

Which of the sciences is this love you speak of? 

 

ALSEMERO 

From your tongue I take it to be music. 

 

BEATRICE 

You are skillful in't, can sing at first sight. 



96 

 

 

ALSEMERO 

And I have show'd you all my skill at once. 

I love you dearly. 

 

BEATRICE 

Be better advis'd, sir: 

Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgments, 

But they are rash sometimes, and tell us wonders 

Of common things, which when our judgments find, 

They can then check the eyes, and call them blind. 

 

ALSEMERO 

But I am further, lady; yesterday 

Was mine eyes' employment, and hither now 

They brought my judgment, where are both agreed. 

Only there wants the confirmation 

By the hand royal; that's your part, lady. 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, there's one above me, sir. 

 

JASPERINO 

[Aside] I meant to be a venturer in this voyage. Yonder's another vessel: I'll board 

her; if she be lawful prize, down goes her topsail! 

Enter Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

Lady, your father-- 

 

BEATRICE 

Is in health, I hope. 

 



97 

 

DEFLORES 

Your eye shall instantly instruct you, lady. 

He's coming hitherward. 

 

BEATRICE 

What needed then 

Your duteous preface? I had rather 

He had come unexpected; you must stall 

A good presence with unnecessary blabbing: 

And how welcome for your part you are, 

I'm sure you know. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] Will't never mend, this scorn, 

One side nor other? Must I be enjoin'd 

To follow still whilst she flies from me? Well, 

Fates do your worst, I'll please myself with sight 

Of her, at all opportunities, 

If but to spite her anger. I know she had 

Rather see me dead than living, and yet 

She knows no cause for't but a peevish will. 

 

ALSEMERO 

You seem'd displeas'd, lady, on the sudden. 

 

BEATRICE 

Your pardon, sir, 'tis my infirmity, 

Nor can I other reason render you 

Than his or hers, of some particular thing 

They must abandon as a deadly poison, 

Which to a thousand other tastes were wholesome; 

Such to mine eyes is that same fellow there. 
 

ALSEMERO 

He does ill to tempt your sight, if he knew it. 



98 

 

 

BEATRICE 

He cannot be ignorant of that, sir; 

I have not spar'd to tell him so, and I want 

To help myself, since he's a gentleman 

In good respect with my father and follows him. 

 

ALSEMERO 

He's out of his place then now. 

Focus switches to Jasperino and Diaphanta 

 

JASPERINO 

I am a mad wag, wench. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

So methinks; but for your comfort I can tell you we have a doctor in the city that 

undertakes the cure of such. 

 

JASPERINO 

Tush, I know what physic is best. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

A little poppy, sir, were good to cause you sleep. 

 

JASPERINO 

Poppy! I'll give thee a pop i' th' lips for that first, and begin there. [He kisses her.] 

Poppy is one simple indeed, and cuckoo, what you call't, another: I'll discover no 

more now; another time I'll show thee all. 

Enter Vermandero with servant. 

 

BEATRICE 

My father, sir. 

 



99 

 

VERMANDERO 

Oh, Joanna, I came to meet thee. 

Your devotion's ended? 

 

BEATRICE 

For this time, sir. 

[Aside] I shall change my saint, I fear me: I find 

A giddy turning in me.--Sir, this while 

I am beholding to this gentleman, 

Who left his own way to keep me company, 

And in discourse I find him much desirous 

To see your castle: he hath deserv'd it, sir, 

If ye please to grant it. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Alsemero, sir. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Alsemero? Not the son 

Of John de Alsemero? 

Oh, sir, I knew your father. 

We two were in acquaintance long ago 

And so continued till the stamp of time 

Had coin'd us into silver. Well, he's gone; 

A good soldier went with him 

In fight with those rebellious Hollanders, 

Was it not so? 

 

ALSEMERO 

Whose death I had reveng'd, 

Or followed him in fate, had not the late league 

Prevented me. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Ay, ay, 'twas time to breathe. 



100 

 

Oh, Joanna, I should ha' told thee news: 

I saw Piracquo lately. 

He's hot preparing for this day of triumph; 

Thou must be a bride within this sevennight. 

 

BEATRICE 

Nay, good sir, be not so violent; with speed 

I cannot render satisfaction 

Unto the dear companion of my soul, 

Virginity, whom I thus long have liv'd with-- 

 

VERMANDERO 

Tush, tush, there's a toy. 

 

ALSEMERO  

[Aside] I must now part, and never meet again 

With any joy on earth.--Sir, your pardon, 

My affairs call on me. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Not chang'd so soon, I hope? You must see my castle 

And her best entertainment ere we part; 

Come, come, let's on; I had good hope your stay 

Had been a while with us in Alicant; 

I might have bid you to my daughter's wedding. 

I tell you, sir, the gentleman's complete. 

 

ALSEMERO 

He's much 

Bound to you, sir. 

 

VERMANDERO 

He shall be bound to me, 

As fast as this tie can hold him; I'll want 



101 

 

My will else. 

But come, by the way I'll tell you more of him. 

 

ALSEMERO 

[Aside] How shall I dare to venture in his castle 

When he discharges murderers at the gate? 

But I must on, for back I cannot go. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Look, girl, thy glove's fall'n; 

Stay, stay, Deflores, help a little. 

 

DEFLORES 

Here, lady. 

He holds the glove for her to grab, when she does so, instead of letting go, he pulls 

her forward. The Joannas (2, 3 and 4) are lit, tense, for a brief moment. 

 

BEATRICE 

Mischief on your officious forwardness! 

Who bade you stoop? They touch my hand no more: 

There, for t'other's sake I part with this; 

Take 'em and draw thine own skin off with 'em. 

Exeunt. Manet Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

Here's a favour come with a mischief! 

Now I know she had rather wear my pelt tann'd 

In a pair of dancing pumps than I should 

Thrust my fingers into her sockets here. 

      I know 

She hates me, yet cannot choose but love her: 

No matter, if but to vex her, I'll haunt her still; 

Though I get nothing else, I'll have my will. 

Exit. 



102 

 

1.2 A room in Alibius's house 

ALIBIUS 

Lollio, I must trust thee with a secret, 

But thou must keep it. 

Lollio, I have a wife. 

 

LOLLIO 

Fie, sir, 'tis too late to keep her secret; she's known to be married all the town over. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Thou goest too fast, my Lollio: 

My wife is young. I am old, Lollio. 

 

LOLLIO 

No, sir, 'tis I am old Lollio. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Here's the fear, man  

I would wear my ring on my own finger; 

Whilst it is borrowed it is none of mine. 

 

LOLLIO 

You must keep it on still then; if it but lie by, one or other will be thrusting into't. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Thou conceiv'st me, Lollio; here thy watchful eye 

Must have employment. I cannot always be at home 

To watch her treadings, and in my absence 

Supply my place.  

 

LOLLIO 

Surely I cannot see who you should have cause to be jealous of. We have but fools 



103 

 

and madmen here, and both under the whip; the one has not wit enough to be 

knaves, and the other not knavery enough to be fools. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Ay, those are all my patients, Lollio. 

I do profess the cure of either sort: 

My trade, my living 'tis, I thrive by it. 

But here's the care that mixes with my thrift: 

The daily visitants that come to see 

My brainsick patients I would not have 

To see my wife. Gallants I do observe 

Of quick, enticing eyes, rich in habits: 

These are most shrewd temptations, Lollio. 

 

LOLLIO 

If they come to see the fools and madmen, you and I may serve the turn, and let my 

mistress alone; she's of neither sort. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Hold that buckler fast, Lollio; my trust 

Is on thee, and I account it firm and strong. 

Enter Livia and Antonio, as an “idiot”. 

 

LIVIA 

Save you, sir, my business speaks itself. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Ay, ay, ma'm, 

'Tis plain enough, you mean him for my patient. 

 

LIVIA 

[Giving Alibius money] And if your pains prove but commodious, 

To give but some little strength to his sick 

And weak part of nature in him, these are 



104 

 

But patterns to show you of the whole pieces 

That will follow to you. 

 

LOLLIO 

Sir, an officer in this place may deserve something; the trouble will pass through 

my hands. 

 

LIVIA 

[Giving Lollio money] 'Tis fit something should come to your hands then, sir. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Believe it, ma'am there shall be no care wanting. 

 

LIVIA  

His name is Antonio; marry, we use but half to him, only Tony. 

If you can raise him but to any height, 

'Twould add an honour to your worthy pains, 

He is a gentleman. 

 

LOLLIO 

As you allow us time and means, we can raise him to the wit of a magnifico. 

 

LIVIA 

Oh, no, that's not to be expected; far shorter will be enough. 

 

LOLLIO 

No, fie, to level him with a constabler. I'll go further; say I make him as wise as 

myself. 

 

LIVIA 

Why, there I would have it. And so leave you: your best cares, I beseech you. 

Exit Livia. 

 



105 

 

LOLLIO 

I were best try his wit a little. Tony, how many true fingers has a tailor on his right 

hand? 

 

ANTONIO 

As many as on his left, cousin. 

 

LOLLIO 

Very well answered. Tony: say how many fools are here. 

 

ANTONIO 

Two, cousin, thou and I. 

 

LOLLIO 

Tony; mark my question: how many fools and knaves are here? A fool before a 

knave, a fool behind a knave, between every two fools a knave, how many fools, 

how many knaves? 

 

ANTONIO 

I never learnt so far, cousin. 

 

LOLLIO 

I'll make you understand it easily. Cousin, stand there. Master, stand you next the 

fool. Here's my place. Mark now, Tony: there a fool before a knave. 

 

ANTONIO 

That's I, cousin. 

 

LOLLIO 

Here's a fool behind a knave, that's I, and between us two fools there is a knave, 

that's my master; 'tis but we three. 

Madmen are heard from within. 



106 

 

 

LOLLIO 

Peace, I say! Their hour's come, they must be fed. 

Come, Tony, you must amongst your school-fellows now. 

Exeunt. 

 

2.1 A chamber in the castle 

BEATRICE 

Oh, sir, I'm ready now for that fair service 

Which makes the name of friend sit glorious on you; 

Fitness of time and place is there set down, sir. [She hands him a paper.] 

 

JASPERINO 

The joy I shall return rewards my service. 

Exit. 

 

BEATRICE 

How wise is Alsemero in his friend! 

It is a sign he makes his choice with judgment. 

Methinks I love now with the eyes of judgment 

And see the way to merit, clearly see it. 

Enter Deflores. Joanas are lit, barely at first, small tense actions through their 

dialogue. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] Yonder's she. 

What ever ails me? Now alate especially 

I can as well be hang'd as refrain seeing her; 

Some twenty times a day-- nay, not so little-- 

Do I force errands, frame ways and excuses 

To come into her sight, and I have small reason for't, 

And less encouragement; for she baits me still 

Every time worse than other, does profess herself 

The cruelest enemy to my face in town-- 



107 

 

She turns her blessed eye upon me now, 

And I'll endure all storms before I part with 't. 

 

BEATRICE 

Again! 

[Aside] This ominous ill-fac'd fellow more disturbs me 

Than all my other passions. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] Now 't begins again; 

I'll stand this storm of hail though the stones pelt me. 

 

BEATRICE 

Thy business? What's thy business? 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] The villain's fix'd.-- 

Thou standing toad-pool! 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] The shower falls amain now. 

 

BEATRICE 

Who sent thee? What's thy errand? Leave my sight! 

 

DEFLORES 

My lord your father charg'd me to deliver 

A message to you. 

 

BEATRICE 

What, another since? 

Do't and be hang'd then, let me be rid of thee! 



108 

 

 

DEFLORES 

True service merits mercy. 

 

BEATRICE 

What's thy message? 

 

DEFLORES 

Let beauty settle but in patience, 

You shall hear all. 

 

BEATRICE 

A dallying, trifling torment! 

 

DEFLORES 

Signior Alonzo de Piracquo, lady, 

is new alighted. 

 

BEATRICE 

Vengeance strike the news! 

Thou thing most loath'd, what cause was there in this 

To bring thee to my sight? 

Get thee from me. 

 

DEFLORES 

So. 

[Aside] Why, am not I an ass to devise ways 

Thus to be rail'd at? I must see her still! 

I shall have a mad qualm within this hour again, 

I do but take breath to be lugg'd again. 

Exit Deflores. 

 



109 

 

BEATRICE 

I never see this fellow but I think 

Of some harm towards me: danger's in my mind still; 

I scarce leave trembling of an hour after.    

The next good mood I find my father in 

I'll get him quite discarded. Oh, I was    [Joannas disappear] 

Lost in this small disturbance and forgot 

Affliction's fiercer torrent that now comes, 

To bear down all my comforts. 

Enter Vermandero above, Alonzo and Tomazo are brought in by the servant below. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Y'are both welcome, 

But an especial one belongs to you, sir, 

To whose most noble name our love presents 

The addition of a son, our son Alonzo. 

 

ALONZO 

The treasury of honour cannot bring forth 

A title I should more rejoice in, sir. 

 

VERMANDERO 

You have improv'd it well. Daughter, prepare; 

The day will steal upon thee suddenly. 

Beatrice pulls Vermandero to talk apart. 

 

TOMAZO 

Alonzo. 

In troth I see small welcome in her eye. 

 

ALONZO 

Fie, you are too severe a censurer 

Of love in all points; there's no bringing on you. 

 



110 

 

BEATRICE 

That's all I do entreat. 

 

VERMANDERO 

It is but reasonable; 

I'll see what my son says to't. Son Alonzo, 

Here's a motion made but to reprieve 

A maidenhead three days longer; the request 

Is not far out of reason, for indeed 

The former time is pinching. 

 

ALONZO 

The time is set as pleasing as before. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Y'are nobly welcome, sirs. 

Exeunt Vermandero and Beatrice. 

 

TOMAZO 

So, did you mark the dullness of her parting now? 

Unsettle your affection with all speed 

Wisdom can bring it to, your peace is ruin'd else. 

Think what a torment 'tis to marry one 

Whose heart is leapt into another's bosom: 

She lies but with another in thine arms. 

 

ALONZO 

You speak as if she lov'd some other then. 

 

TOMAZO 

Do you apprehend so slowly? 

 



111 

 

ALONZO 

Nay, and that 

Be your fear only, I am safe enough; 

Preserve your friendship and your counsel, brother. 

Pray let no more be urg'd; I can endure 

Much till I meet an injury to her, 

Then I am not myself. Farewell, sweet brother. 

Exit. 

 

TOMAZO 

Why, here is love's tame madness!  

Exit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



112 

 

2.2 Another chamber 

DIAPHANTA (to Alsemero) 

The place is my charge; you have kept your hour, 

And the reward of a just meeting bless you. 

Exit. Enter Beatrice. 

 

BEATRICE 

I have within mine eye all my desires; 

Requests that holy prayers ascend heaven for, 

And brings 'em down to furnish our defects, 

Come not more sweet to our necessities 

Than thou unto my wishes. 

 

ALSEMERO 

W'are so like 

In our expressions, lady, that unless I borrow 

The same words, I shall never find their equals. 

 

BEATRICE 

How happy were this meeting, this embrace, 

If it were free from envy! How well were I now 

If there were none such name known as Piracquo, 

Nor no such tie as the command of parents! 

 

ALSEMERO 

    One good service 

Would strike off both your fears. 

I'll send a challenge to Piracquo instantly. 

 

BEATRICE 

How? Call you that extinguishing of fear 

When 'tis the only way to keep it flaming? 

Are not you ventured in the action 

That's all my joys and comforts? Pray no more, sir.  

Say you prevail'd, you're danger's and not mine then: 



113 

 

The law would claim you from me, or obscurity 

Be made the grave to bury you alive. 

The tears would ne'er 'a' dried till dust had chok'd 'em. 

Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage, 

[Aside] And now I think on one-- I was too blame: 

I ha'marr'd so good a market with my scorn. 

'T had been done questionless. The ugliest creature 

Creation fram'd for some use, yet to see 

I could not mark so much where it should be. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Lady. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]  Why, men of art make much of poison, 

Keep one to expel another; where was my art? 

 

ALSEMERO 

Lady, you hear not me. 

 

BEATRICE 

    I do especially, sir; 

The present times are not so sure of our side 

As those hereafter may be; we must use 'em then, 

As thrifty folks their wealth, sparingly now 

Till the time opens. 

Within there, Diaphanta! [Enter Diaphanta.] 

Perfect your service, and conduct this gentleman 

The private way you brought him. 

 

ALSEMERO 

My love's as firm as love e'er built upon. 

Exeunt Diaphanta and Alsemero. Enter Deflores. 

 



114 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] I have watch'd this meeting, and do wonder much 

What shall become of t'other; I'm sure both 

Cannot be serv'd unless she transgress. Happily 

Then I'll put in for one: for if a woman 

Fly from one point, from him she makes a husband, 

She spreads and mounts then like arithmetic: 

One, ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, 

Proves in time sutler to an army royal. 

Now do I look to be most richly rail'd at, 

Yet I must see her. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] Why, put case I loath'd him 

Must I needs show it? Cannot I keep that secret, 

And serve my turn upon him? See, he's here.-- 

Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] Ha, I shall run mad with joy! 

She call'd me fairly by my name, Deflores. 

 

BEATRICE 

     What ha' you done 

To your face alate? Y'ave met with some good physician; 

Y'ave prun'd yourself, methinks: you were not wont 

To look so amorously. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside]    Not I; 

'Tis the same physnomy to a hair and pimple 

Which she call'd scurvy scarce an hour ago. 

 

BEATRICE 

Come hither, nearer, man. 



115 

 

Turn, let me see. 

Fah! 'Tis but the heat of the liver, I perceive 't. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] Her fingers touch'd me; 

She smells all amber. 

 

BEATRICE 

I'll make a water, for you shall cleanse this 

Within a fortnight. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside]   'Tis half an act of pleasure 

To hear her talk thus to me. 

 

BEATRICE 

    When w'are us'd 

To a hard face, 'tis not so unpleasing. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside]     I was blest 

To light upon this minute; I'll make use on't. 

 

BEATRICE 

Hardness becomes the visage of a man well; 

It argues service, resolution, manhood, 

If cause were of employment. 

 

DEFLORES 

    'Twould be soon seen, 

If e'er your ladyship had cause to use it. 

 



116 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]      We shall try you.-- 

Oh, my Deflores! 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside]    How's that? 

She calls me hers already, my Deflores!-- 

You were about to sigh out somewhat, madam. 

That sigh would fain have utterance. Take pity on't! 

 

BEATRICE 

Would creation-- 

 

DEFLORES 

   Ay, well said, that's it. 

 

BEATRICE 

Had form'd me man. 

 

DEFLORES 

   Nay, that's not it. 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, 'tis the soul of freedom! 

I should not then be forc'd to marry one 

I hate beyond all depths; I should have power 

Then to oppose my loathings, nay, remove 'em 

Forever from my sight. 

 

DEFLORES 

Oh, blest occasion! 

[Kneeling] Without change to your sex, you have your wishes. 

Claim so much man in me. 



117 

 

 

BEATRICE 

In thee, Deflores? 

There's small cause for that. 

 

DEFLORES 

    Put it not from me; 

It's a service that I kneel for to you. 

 

BEATRICE 

You are too violent to mean faithfully; 

There's horror in my service, blood and danger: 

Can those be things to sue for? 

 

DEFLORES 

     If you knew 

How sweet it were to me to be employed 

In any act of yours, you would say then 

I fail'd and us'd not reverence enough 

When I receive the charge on't. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]     This is much, 

Methinks; belike his wants are greedy, and 

To such gold tastes like angels' food. --Rise. 

 

DEFLORES 

I'll have the work first. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]    Possible his need 

Is strong upon him. [Offering him money] There's to encourage thee; 

As thou art forward and thy service dangerous, 

Thy reward shall be precious. 



118 

 

 

DEFLORES 

    That I have thought on;  

I have assur'd myself of that beforehand, 

And know it will be precious: the thought ravishes!  [A flash of the Joannas 

holding each other's hands] 

 

BEATRICE 

Then take him to thy fury. 

Alonzo de Piracquo. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Rises.] His end's upon him; he shall be seen no more. 

 

BEATRICE 

Be wondrous careful in the execution. 

 

DEFLORES 

Why, are not both our lives upon the cast? 

 

BEATRICE 

Then I throw all my fears upon thy service. 

 

DEFLORES 

They ne'er shall rise to hurt you. 

 

BEATRICE 

When the deed's done, 

I'll furnish thee with all things for thy flight; 

Thou may'st live bravely in another country. 

 



119 

 

DEFLORES 

Ay, ay, we'll talk of that hereafter. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] I shall rid myself of two inveterate loathings 

At one time: Piracquo and his dog-face. 

Exit. 

 

DEFLORES 

    Oh, my blood!  

Methinks I feel her in mine arms already, 

Her wanton fingers combing out this beard, 

And being pleased, praising this bad face. 

Hunger and pleasure, they'll commend sometimes 

Slovenly dishes and feed heartily on 'em; 

Nay, which is stranger, refuse daintier for 'em. 

Some women are odd feeders. I'm too loud; 

Here comes the man goes supperless to bed, 

Yet shall not rise tomorrow to his dinner. 

Enter Alonzo. 

 

ALONZO 

Deflores. I am glad I ha' met with thee. 

Thou canst show me the full strength of the castle? 

 

DEFLORES 

That I can, sir. 

And if the ways and straits of some of the passages 

Be not too tedious for you, I will assure 

You worth your time and sight, my lord. 

 

ALONZO 

Puh, that shall be no hinderance. 

 



120 

 

DEFLORES 

I'm your servant then. [Deflores hides a weapon, as Alonzo goes ahead.] 

All this is nothing; you shall see anon 

A place you little dream on. 

 

ALONZO 

Here's rich variety, Deflores. 

Goodly munition. 

 

DEFLORES 

No bastard metal will ring you a peal like bells 

At great men's funerals. Keep your eye straight, my lord; 

Take special notice of that sconce before you. [Stabs him.] 

 

ALONZO 

Deflores, oh, Deflores, 

Whose malice hast thou put on? 

 

DEFLORES 

Do you question 

A work of secrecy? I must silence you. [Stabs him. Alonzo still moans/cries out] 

I must silence you. [Stabs him; Alonzo dies.] 

So, here's an undertaking well accomplish'd. 

This vault serves to good use now. Ha! What's that 

Threw sparkles in my eye? Oh, 'tis a diamond. 

This will approve the work.[He tries to take the ring off.] 

What, so fast on? 

Not part in death? I'll take a speedy course then: 

Finger and all shall off. [Cuts off his finger.] So, now I'll clear 

The passages from all suspect or fear. 

Exit with body- perhaps a flash of the Joannas? 

 

 

 

 



121 

 

3.1  A vault Enter Isabella and Lollio. 

ISABELLA 

Why, sirrah? Whence have you commission 

To fetter the doors against me?  

Is it your master's pleasure, or your own? 

 

LOLLIO 

'Tis for my masters pleasure, lest being taken in another man's corn, you might be 

pounded in another place. 

 

ISABELLA 

Y'are a brave, saucy rascal! Come on, sir, 

Afford me then the pleasure of your bedlam. 

 

LOLLIO 

When you have a taste of the madman, you shall see Fools' College o' th' side. Exit. 

[Within] Come on, sir, let me see how handsomely you'll behave yourself now.  

Enter Lollio, Franciscus. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

How sweetly she looks! Poet, drink to my mistress' health; I'll pledge it. Stay, stay, 

there's a spider in the cup! No, 'tis but a grape seed: swallow it, fear nothing, poet. 

 

ISABELLA 

Alack, alack, 'tis too full of pity 

To be laugh'd at! How fell he mad? 

 

LOLLIO 

For love, mistress. The Muses forsook him; he ran mad for a chambermaid. 

[Showing him a whip] Not too near, you see your danger. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Oh, hold thy hand! 



122 

 

Thou feed'st thy horses well, they shall obey thee. 

Get up; I kneel. [Gets down on all fours.] 

 

ISABELLA 

His conscience is unquiet; sure that was 

The cause of this. A proper gentleman. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Cupid struck me blind. 

 

LOLLIO 

And Luna made you mad; you have two trades to beg with. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Luna is now big-bellied, and there's room 

For both of us to ride with Hecate; 

I'll drag thee up into her silver sphere, 

The swiftlycanthropi that walks the round, 

We'll tear their wolvish skins, and save the sheep. [Beats Lollio.] 

 

LOLLIO 

Mad slave, indeed, abuse your keeper? [whips him] 

 

ISABELLA 

I prithee hence with him, now he grows dangerous. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

[Singing] Sweet love pity me, give me leave to lie with thee. 

 

LOLLIO 

No, I'll see you wiser first. To your own kennel. [Exit Franciscus.] Now, mistress, I 

will bring you another sort. Tony, come hither, Tony, look who's yonder. [Enter 



123 

 

Antonio.] 

Fear him not, mistress, 'tis a gentle nidget; you may play with him. 

 

MADMAN within 

Bounce, bounce, he falls, he falls! 

 

LOLLIO 

Must I come amongst you there? Keep you the fool, mistress. [Exit.] 

 

ANTONIO 

'Tis opportuneful now, sweet lady! Nay, 

Cast no amazing eye upon this change. 

 

ISABELLA 

You are a fine fool indeed. 

 

ANTONIO 

No danger in me: I bring naught but love 

And his soft, wounding shafts to strike you with. 

 

ISABELLA 

A forward fool, too. 

 

ANTONIO 

   Take no acquaintance 

Of these outward follies; there is within 

A gentleman that loves you. 

 

ISABELLA 

   When I see him, 

I'll speak with him; so in the meantime 

Keep your habit, it becomes you well enough. 

Enter Lollio. 



124 

 

 

ANTONIO 

And must again. He, he, I thank you, cousin; 

I'll be your valentine tomorrow morning. 

 

LOLLIO 

Is he not witty, pretty well for a fool? 

 

ISABELLA 

If he hold on as he begins, he is like to come to something! 

 

MADMAN [within] 

Catch there, catch the last couple in hell! 

 

LOLLIO 

Again? Must I come amongst you? [Exit.] 

 

ANTONIO 

Why should a minute of love's hour be lost? 

 

ISABELLA 

Fie, out again! I had rather you kept 

Your other posture: you become not your tongue 

When you speak from your clothes. 

 

ANTONIO 

    How can he freeze 

Lives near so sweet a warmth?  

Enter Lollio above. 

 

ISABELLA 

Take heed, there's giants keep 'em. [Antonio kisses her.] 



125 

 

 

LOLLIO [above] 

How now, fool, are you good at that? I believe I must put harder questions to him. 

 

ISABELLA 

You are bold without fear, too. 

 

ANTONIO 

   What should I fear, 

Having all joys about me? Do you smile, 

And love shall play the wanton on your lip, 

Meet and retire, retire and meet again. 

 

LOLLIO 

[Aside] Cuckoo, cuckoo!  

Lollio Exits. [Enter and exit Madmen above.] 

 

ANTONIO  

What are these? 

 

ISABELLA 

  Of fear enough to part us, 

Yet are they but our schools of lunatics, 

That act their fantasies in any shapes 

Suiting their present thoughts: if sad, they cry; 

If mirth be their conceit, they laugh again. 

Sometimes they imitate the beasts and birds, 

Singing or howling, braying, barking; all 

As their wild fancies prompt 'em. 

Enter Lollio. 

 

ISABELLA 

Your fool is grown wondrous witty. 



126 

 

 

LOLLIO 

Well, I'll say nothing; but I do think he will put you down one of these days. 

Exeunt Lollio and Antonio. 

 

ISABELLA 

Here the restrained current might make breach, 

Spite of the watchful bankers. Would a woman stray, 

She need not gad abroad to seek her sin; 

It would be brought home one ways or other. 

Enter Lollio. 

 

LOLLIO 

How dost thou, sweet rogue? 

Come, there are degrees; one fool may be better than another. 

 

ISABELLA 

What's the matter? 

 

LOLLIO 

Nay, if thou giv'st thy mind to fools, flesh, have at thee! [Tries to kiss her.] 

 

ISABELLA 

You bold slave, you! 

 

LOLLIO 

I could follow now as t'other fool did: 

[Imitating Antonio] "What should I fear, 

Having all joys about me? Do you smile..." 

But is not this the more foolish way? Come, sweet rogue, kiss me. 

 

ISABELLA 

Sirrah, no more! I see you have discovered 



127 

 

This love's knight-errant, who hath made adventure 

For purchase of my love; be silent, mute, 

Mute as a statue, or his injunction 

For me enjoying shall be to cut thy throat. 

I'll do it, though for no other purpose, 

And be sure he'll not refuse it. 

No more: your master! 

Enter Alibius. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Sweet, how dost thou? 

 

ISABELLA 

Your bounden servant, sir. 

You were best lock me up. 

 

ALIBIUS 

In my arms and bosom, my sweet. Lollio, 

We have employment, we have task in hand; 

At noble Vermandero's, our castle-captain, 

There is a nuptial to be solemnis'd, 

For which the gentleman hath bespoke our pains: 

A mixture of our madmen and our fools 

To finish, as it were, and make the fag 

Of all the revels, the third night from the first. 

This, this, Lollio: there's a good reward begun, 

And will beget a bounty, be it known. 

 

ISABELLA 

Y'ave a fine trade on't; 

Madmen and fools are a staple commodity. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Oh, wife, we must eat, wear clothes, and live: 



128 

 

Just at the lawyer's haven we arrive, 

By madmen and by fools we both do thrive. 

Exeunt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



129 

 

3.2 A chamber in the castle -Vermandero, Alsemero, Jasperino, Servant and 

Beatrice. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Valencia speaks so nobly of you, sir, 

I wish I had a daughter now for you; 

But heaven has married her to joys eternal. 

Come, sir, your friend and you shall see the pleasures 

Which my health chiefly joys in. 

Exeunt. Manet Beatrice. 

 

BEATRICE 

So, here's one step 

Into my father's favour; time will fix him. 

I have got him now the liberty of the house; 

So wisdom by degrees works out her freedom. 

Enter Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

[Aside] My thoughts are at a banquet for the deed: 

I feel no weight in't; 'tis but light and cheap 

For the sweet recompense that I set down for't. 

 

BEATRICE 

Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

  Lady. 

 

BEATRICE 

Is it done then? 

 

DEFLORES 

   Piracquo is no more. 



130 

 

 

BEATRICE 

My joys start at mine eyes; our sweet'st delights 

Are evermore born weeping. 

 

DEFLORES 

I've a token for you. 

But it was sent somewhat unwillingly: 

I could not get the ring without the finger. 

 

BEATRICE 

Bless me! What hast thou done? 

 

DEFLORES 

Why, is that more than killing the whole man? 

 

BEATRICE 

'Tis the first token my father made me send him. 

 

DEFLORES 

And I made him send it back again. 

 

BEATRICE 

I pray bury the finger, but the stone 

You may make use on shortly; the true value, 

Take't of my truth, is near three hundred ducats. 

 

DEFLORES 

'Twill hardly buy a capcase for one's conscience, though, 

To keep it from the worm, as fine as 'tis. 

Well, being my fees I'll take it; 

Great men have taught me that, or else my merit 

Would scorn the way on't. 



131 

 

 

BEATRICE 

    It might justly, sir. 

Why, thou mistak'st, Deflores: 'tis not given 

In state of recompense. 

Prithee, thou look'st as if thou wert offended. 

 

DEFLORES 

Offended? Could you think so? 

 

BEATRICE 

Look you, sir, here's three thousand golden florins; 

I have not meanly thought upon thy merit. 

 

DEFLORES 

What, salary? Now you move me. 

 

BEATRICE 

       How, Deflores? 

 

DEFLORES 

Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows 

To destroy things for wages? Offer gold? 

The lifeblood of man! Is anything 

Valued too precious for my recompense? 

 

BEATRICE 

I understand thee not. 

 

DEFLORES 

   I could ha' hir'd 

A journeyman in murder at this rate, 

And mine own conscience might have slept at ease. 



132 

 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] I'm in a labyrinth; 

What will content him? I would fain be rid of him.-- 

I'll double the sum, sir. 

 

DEFLORES 

    You take a course 

To double my vexation, that's the good you do. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] Bless me! I am now in worse plight than I was; 

I know not what will please him.--For my fear's sake, 

I prithee make away with all speed possible. 

And if thou be'st so modest not to name 

The sum that will content thee, paper blushes not: 

Send thy demand in writing, it shall follow thee; 

But prithee take thy flight. 

 

DEFLORES 

    You must fly too then. 

I'll not stir a foot else. 

 

BEATRICE 

    What's your meaning? 

 

DEFLORES 

Why, are not you as guilty, in, I'm sure, 

As deep as I? And we should stick together. 

Come, your fears counsel you but ill: my absence 

Would draw suspect upon you instantly; 

There were no rescue for you. 

 



133 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]    He speaks home. 

 

DEFLORES 

Nor is it fit we two engag'd so jointly 

Should part and live asunder. [He tries to kiss her.] 

 

BEATRICE 

    How now, sir? 

This shows not well. 

 

DEFLORES 

   What makes your lip so strange? 

This must not be 'twixt us. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]    The man talks wildly. 

 

DEFLORES 

Come, kiss me with a zeal now! 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside]     Heaven, I doubt him! 

 

DEFLORES 

I will not stand so long to beg 'em shortly. 

 

BEATRICE 

Take heed, Deflores, of forgetfulness; 

'Twill soon betray us. 

 



134 

 

DEFLORES 

   Take you heed first; 

Faith, y'are grown much forgetful: y'are too blame in't. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] He's bold, and I am blam'd for't. 

 

DEFLORES 

     I have eas'd 

You of your trouble; think on't: I'm in pain 

And must be eas'd of you; 'tis a charity. 

Justice invites your blood to understand me. 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, I never shall! 

 

DEFLORES 

Oh, this act 

Has put me into spirit; I was as greedy on't 

As the parch'd earth of moisture when the clouds weep. 

You see I have thrown contempt upon your gold; 

Not that I want it not, for I do-- piteously. 

In order I will come unto't and make use on't. 

But 'twas not held so precious to begin with, 

For I place wealth after the heels of pleasure; 

And were I not resolv'd in my belief 

That thy virginity were perfect in thee, 

I should but take my recompense with grudging, 

As if I had but half my hopes I agreed for. 

 

BEATRICE 

Why, 'tis impossible thou canst be so wicked, 

To make his death the murderer of my honour! 

Thy language is so bold and vicious, 



135 

 

I cannot see which way I can forgive it 

With any modesty. 

 

DEFLORES 

   Push, you forget yourself: 

A woman dipp'd in blood and talk of modesty! 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, misery of sin! Would I had been bound 

Perpetually unto my living hate 

In that Piracquo than to hear these words! 

Think but upon the distance that creation 

Set 'twixt thy blood and mine, and keep thee there. 

 

DEFLORES 

Look but into your conscience, read me there: 

'Tis a true book; you'll find me there your equal. 

You must forget your parentage to me; 

Y'are the deeds creature: by that name 

You lost your first condition, and I challenge you, 

As peace and innocency has turn'd you out 

And made you one with me. 

 

BEATRICE 

    With thee, foul villain? 

 

DEFLORES 

Yes, my fair murderess. Do you urge me? 

Though thou writ'st maid, thou whore in thy affection, 

'Twas chang'd from thy first love, and that's a kind 

Of whoredom in thy heart; and he's chang'd now 

To bring thy second on, thy Alsemero, 

Whom, by all sweets that ever darkness tasted, 

If I enjoy thee not, thou ne'er enjoy'st. 



136 

 

I'll blast the hopes and joys of marriage; 

I'll confess all, my life I rate at nothing. 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, sir, hear me! 

 

DEFLORES 

She that in life and love refuses me, 

In death and shame my partner she shall be. 

 

BEATRICE 

Stay, hear me once for all: I make thee master 

Of all the wealth I have in gold and jewels; 

Let me go poor unto my bed with honour 

And I am rich in all things. 

 

DEFLORES 

Let this silence thee: 

The wealth of all Valencia shall not buy 

My pleasure from me. 

 

BEATRICE 

Vengeance begins; 

Murder, I see, is followed by more sins. 

Was my creation in the womb so curs'd 

It must engender with a viper first? 

 

DEFLORES 

Come, rise and shroud your blushes in my bosom; 

Silence is one of pleasure's best receipts: 

Thy peace is wrought forever in this yielding. 

'Las, how the turtle pants! Thou'lt love anon 

What thou so fear'st and faint'st to venture on. 

 



137 

 

3.3 

  Deflores submits/manhandles her. 

  Joannas appear when he touches Beatrice. The Joannas perform the same action 

as Beatrice-Joanna. They come into focus as darkness sets on Beatrice-Joanna and 

De Flores. Joannas actions become more frantic and hieghtened in a crescendo till 

reaching a peak.  

  Lights back on Joanna, left an used mess. Deflores exits.  

  The same cleansing action from the start is performed by Beatrice-Joanna alone. 

The Joannas then join until suddenly -- 

 Clock strikes/ Church bells toll. Beatrice is startled and we are brought back to 

the present. The women dress her, while all around the gentlemen look for Alonzo 

and Vermandero points to Alsemero, the men applaud the choice and fashion him 

for a groom. 

 Clock strikes/ Church bells toll. Beatrice walks to her groom. 

 Enter Deflores after all, smiling at the accident. Beatrice locks eyes with Deflores. 

Reality is suspended, she re-enacts her trauma. 

 Church bell rings/ bells toll. Back in reality, Alsemero touches her, she flinches. 

 Black 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



138 

 

4.1 Alsemero's chamber  The Joannas (2, 3 and 4) are visible through most of the scene, 
re-enacting her trauma. Focus varies with how triggering the action is. 

 

BEATRICE 

This fellow has undone me endlessly; 

Never was bride so fearfully distress'd. 

The more I think upon th' ensuing night, 

And whom I am to cope with in embraces-- 

One who's ennobled both in blood and mind, 

So clear in understanding, that's my plague now, 

Before whose judgment will my fault appear 

There is no hiding on't-- There's no venturing 

Into his bed, what course soe'er I light upon, 

Without my shame, which may grow up to danger. 

He cannot but in justice strangle me 

As I lie by him, as a cheater use me. 

'Tis a precious craft to play with a false die 

Before a cunning gamester. Here's his closet, 

The key left in't, and he abroad i' th' park. 

Sure 'twas forgot; I'll be so bold as look in't. 

Bless me! A right physician's closet 'tis. 

What manuscript lies here? The Book of Experiment, 

Call'd Secrets in Nature: so 'tis, 'tis so. 

[Reading] "How to know whether a woman be with child or no." 

I hope I am not yet; if he should try, though... 

The leaf tuck'd down upon't, the place suspicious. 

[Reading] "give her two spoonfuls of the white water in glass C. And if she be with 

child, she sleeps full twelve hours after; if not, not." 

None of that water comes into my belly. 

Ha! That which is next, is ten times worse. 

[Reading] "How to know whether a woman be a maid or not." 

If that should be apply'd, what would become of me? 

[Reading] "Give the party you suspect a spoonful of the water in the glass M, 

which upon her that is a maid makes three effects: 'twill make her incontinently 

gape, then fall into a sudden sneezing, last into a violent laughing; else dull, heavy, 

and lumpish." [bells] Where had I been? 

I fear it, yet 'tis seven hours to bedtime. 

Enter Diaphanta. 

http://www.tech.org/~cleary/change.html#THEBOOKO
http://www.tech.org/~cleary/change.html#THEBOOKO


139 

 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Cuds, madam, are you here? 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] Seeing that wench now, 

A trick comes in my mind-- I come hither 

To look my lord. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

[Aside] Would I had such a cause 

To look him too.--Why, he's i' th' park, madam. 

 

BEATRICE 

There let him be. 

I fear thou art not modest, Diaphanta. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Your thoughts are so unwilling to be known, madam; 

'Tis ever the bride's fashion towards bedtime 

To set light by her joys, as if she ow'd 'em not. 

 

BEATRICE 

Her joys? Her fears, thou wouldst say. 

I will give a thousand ducats to that woman 

Would try what my fear were, and tell me true 

Tomorrow when she gets from 't: as she likes 

I might perhaps be drawn to 't. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Are you in earnest? 

 



140 

 

BEATRICE 

Do you get the woman, then challenge me. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

But are you serious still? Would you resign 

Your first night's pleasure and give money too? 

 

BEATRICE 

As willingly as live. [Aside] Alas, the gold 

Is but a by-bet to wedge in the honour. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Madam, what say you to me, and stray no further? 

 

BEATRICE 

Y'are too quick, I fear, to be a maid. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

How? Not a maid? Nay, then, you urge me, madam, 

Your honourable self is not a truer 

With all your fears upon you 

Then I with all my lightsome joys about me. 

 

BEATRICE 

I'm glad to hear 't; then you dare put your honesty 

Upon an easy trial. 

Glass M. Ay, this is it. Look, Diaphanta, 

You take no worse than I do.  

She drinks and hands Diaphanta the glass. She drinks. 

 

BEATRICE 

Diaphanta gapes. Begins already, 

There's the first symptom. Diaphanta sneezes. And what haste it makes 



141 

 

To fall into the second, there by this time: 

Most admirable secret! On the contrary, 

It stirs not me a whit, which most concerns it. Diaphanta laughs 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] Just in all things and in order. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Ha, ha, ha, I am so, so light 

At heart, ha, ha, ha. so pleasurable! 

Now I'm sad again. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] It lays itself so gently too.--Come, wench, 

Most honest Diaphanta I dare call thee now. 

About midnight 

You must not fail to steal forth gently 

That I may use the place. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Oh, fear not, madam [Exeunt.] 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



142 

 

4.2 A chamber in the castle 

VERMANDERO 

I tell thee, wench, mine honour is in question, 

A thing till now free from suspicion. 

Who of my gentlemen are absent? 

Tell me and truly how many and who. 

 

SERVANT 

Antonio, sir, and Franciscus. 

 

VERMANDERO 

When did they leave the castle? 

 

SERVANT 

Some ten days since, sir. 

 

VERMANDERO 

The time accuses 'um: a charge of murder 

Is brought within my castle gate, Piracquo's murder; 

I dare not answer faithfully their absence. 

A strict command of apprehension 

Shall pursue 'um suddenly, and either wipe 

The stain off clear or openly discover it.   [Enter Tomazo.] 

See, I am set on again. 

Exit Servant. 

 

TOMAZO 

I claim a brother of you. 

For here I left him, and the hasty tie 

Of this snatch'd marriage gives strong testimony 

Of his most certain ruin. 

 



143 

 

VERMANDERO 

   Certain falsehood! 

This is the place indeed; his breach of faith 

Has too much marr'd both my abused love, 

And mock'd my daughter's joy. The prepar'd morning 

Blush'd at his infidelity; he left 

Contempt and scorn to throw upon those friends 

Whose belief hurt 'em: oh, 'twas most ignoble 

To take his flight so unexpectedly 

And throw such public wrongs on those that lov'd him! 

 

TOMAZO 

Then this is all your answer? 

 

VERMANDERO 

    'Tis too fair 

For one of his alliance, and I warn you 

That this place no more see you. 

Exit. Enter Deflores. 

 

TOMAZO 

Honest Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

   That's my name indeed. 

 

TOMAZO 

Come hither, kind and true one; I remember 

My brother lov'd thee well. 

 

DEFLORES 

Oh, purely, dear sir! 

[Aside] Methinks I am now again a-killing on him, 

He brings it so fresh to me.--- 



144 

 

Saw you the bride? Good sweet sir, which way took she? 

 

TOMAZO 

I prithee name her not. Is she not wicked? 

 

DEFLORES 

No, no, a pretty, easy, round-pack'd sinner, 

As your most ladies are-- I am call'd, I think, sir. 

Exit. Enter Alsemero. 

 

ALSEMERO 

You are most welcome. 

 

TOMAZO 

You may call that word back; 

I do not think I am, nor wish to be. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Your words and you 

Appear to me great strangers. 

 

TOMAZO 

Time and our swords 

May make us more acquainted; this the business: 

I should have a brother in your place; 

How treachery and malice have dispos'd of him, 

I'm bound to enquire of him which holds his right. 

 

ALSEMERO 

You must look 

To answer for that word, sir. 

 



145 

 

TOMAZO 

Fear you not; 

I'll have it ready drawn at our next meeting. 

Exit. Enter Jasperino. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Jasperino, 

I have news to tell thee, strange news. 

 

JASPERINO 

I ha' some too 

I think as strange as yours; would I might keep 

Mine, so my faith and friendship might be kept in't. 

'Twas Diaphanta's chance--for to that wench 

I pretend honest love, and she deserves it-- 

To leave me in a back part of the house, 

A place we chose for private conference; 

She was no sooner gone, but instantly 

I heard your bride's voice in the next room to me 

And, lending more attention, found Deflores 

Louder then she. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Deflores? Thou art out now. 

The very sight of him is poison to her. 

 

JASPERINO 

That made me stagger too, but Diaphanta 

At her return confirm'd it. 

Then fell we both to listen, and words pass'd 

Like those that challenge interest in a woman. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Oh, were she the sole glory of the earth, 

Had eyes that could shoot fire into kings' breasts, 



146 

 

And touch'd, she sleeps not here; yet I have time, 

Though night be near, to be resolv'd hereof. 

[Giving him a key] That key will lead thee to a pretty secret 

By a Chaldean taught me, and I've made 

My study upon some; bring from my closet 

A glass inscrib'd there with the letter M, 

And question not my purpose.   [Exit Jasperino.] 

How can this hang together? Not an hour since 

Her woman came pleading her lady's fears, 

Deliver'd her for the most timorous virgin 

That she might come obscurely to my bosom. 

Enter Beatrice. 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] All things go well; my woman's preparing yonder 

For her sweet voyage, which grieves me to lose: 

Necessity compels it; I lose all else. 

 

ALSEMERO 

[Aside] Push, modesty's shrine is set in yonder forehead. 

I cannot be too sure though.--My Joanna. 

 

BEATRICE 

Sir, I was bold to weep a message to you; 

Pardon my modest fears. 

 

ALSEMERO 

[Aside] The dove's not meeker. 

She's abus'd, questionless.  [Enter Jasperino.] 

Oh, are you come, sir? 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] The glass, upon my life! I see the letter. I am suspected. 

 



147 

 

ALSEMERO 

How fitly our bride comes to partake with us! 

 

BEATRICE 

[Aside] I'm put now to my cunning; th' effects I know, 

If I can now but feign 'em handsomely. 

 

ALSEMERO 

[Aside to Jasperino] It has that secret virtue it ne'er miss'd, sir, 

Upon a virgin. Beatrice gapes, then sneezes. 

[Aside to Jasperino] By all that's virtuous, it takes there, proceeds! 

 

JASPERINO 

[Aside to Alsemero] This is the strangest trick to know a maid by. 

 

BEATRICE 

Ha, ha, ha! You have given me joy of heart to drink, my lord. 

 

ALSEMERO 

No, thou hast given me such joy of heart 

That never can be blasted. 

 

BEATRICE 

What's the matter, sir? 

 

ALSEMERO 

[Aside to Jasperino] See, now 'tis settled in a melancholy, 

Keeps both the time and method.--My Joanna, 

Chaste as the breath of heaven or morning's womb 

That brings the day forth, thus my love encloses thee. 

He embraces her. Exeunt. 

 



148 

 

4.3 A room in Alibius's house 

ISABELLA 

Sirrah, here's a madman akin to the fool too, 

A lunatic lover. 

 

LOLLIO 

No, no, not he. I brought the letter. [Reads] "To Andromeda, chief chambermaid to 

the knight of the sun, in the middle region. Pay the post." This is stark madness. 

 

ISABELLA 

Now mark the inside. [she reads] "Sweet lady, having now cast off this counterfeit 

cover of a madman, I appear to your best judgment a true and faithful lover of your 

beauty. I remain, mad till I speak with you, from whom I expect my cure, yours all, 

or one beside himself, Franciscus." 

 

LOLLIO 

You are like to have a fine time on't. My master and I may give over our 

professions; I think you can cure fools and madmen faster than we. 

 

ISABELLA 

Very likely. 

But thy counsel now: how shall I deal with 'um? 

 

LOLLIO 

Abuse 'um: that's the way to mad the fool and make a fool of the madman. 

 

ISABELLA 

'Tis easy. I'll practise; do thou observe it: 

The key of thy wardrobe. [He gives her the key.] 
 

LOLLIO 

There; fit yourself for 'um, and I'll fit 'um both for you. 

Exit. Enter Alibius. 



149 

 

 

ALIBIUS 

Lollio, art there? Will all be perfect, think'st thou? 

I will see them once more rehearse before they go. 

 

LOLLIO 

There is one or two that I mistrust their fooling; I'll instruct them, and then they 

shall rehearse the whole measure. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Do so; I'll see the music prepar'd: but, Lollio, 

By the way, how does my wife brook her restraint? 

 

LOLLIO 

So, so. She takes some pleasure in the house. You must allow her a little more 

length. 

 

ALIBIUS 

She shall along to Vermandero's with us; 

That will serve her for a month's liberty. 

Exit Alibius. 

 

LOLLIO 

Do, sir; and I'll dance the whilst. Tony, where art thou, Tony? 

Enter Antonio. 

 

ANTONIO 

Here, cousin. Where art thou? 

Come, Tony, the footmanship I taught you.  

Enter Isabella dressed as a madwoman. Antonio dances. Lollio exits. 

 

ISABELLA 

Hey, how he treads the air! 



150 

 

Shoo, shoo, t'other way: he burns his wings else; 

Here's wax enough below, Icarus, more 

Than will be canceled these eighteen moons. 

He's down, he's down; what a terrible fall he had! 
 

ANTONIO 

Prithee, coz, let me alone. 

 

ISABELLA 

Art thou not drown'd? 

Bless thee from the pirates.   [Attempts to kiss him] 

 

ANTONIO 

I'll kick thee if again thou touch me, 

Thou wild unshapen antic; I am no fool, 

You bedlam! 

 

ISABELLA 

But you are as sure as I am, mad. 

Have I put on this habit of a frantic 

With love as full of fury to beguile 

The nimble eye of watchful jealousy, 

And am I thus rewarded? 

 

ANTONIO 

Ha, dearest beauty! 

 

ISABELLA 

No, I have no beauty now, 

Nor never had, but what was in my garments. 

You a quick-sighted lover? Come not near me. 

I came a feigner to return stark mad. 

Exit. Enter Lollio. 

 



151 

 

LOLLIO 

Why, Tony, whither now? Why, fool! 

 

ANTONIO 

Whose fool, usher of idiots? You coxcomb! 

I am stark mad, I have cause enough; 

And I could throw the full effects on thee, 

And beat thee like a fury. 

 

LOLLIO 

Do not, do not! I can give you comfort: my mistress loves you, and there is as 

arrant a madman i' th' house as you are a fool, your rival. If after the masque we 

can rid her of him, you earn her love. 

 

ANTONIO 

May I believe thee? 

 

LOLLIO 

Yes, or you may choose whether you will or no. [Exit Antonio. Enter Franciscus.] 

[Aside] This is t'other counterfeit. [Reading] "Sweet lady, having now cast this 

counterfeit cover of a madman, I appear to your...” This is pretty well for a 

madman. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Ha! What's that? 

 

LOLLIO 

[Reading] "Chide those perfections in you which made me imperfect." Your hand 

is true, is it not? If you love my mistress so well, you are like to be cur'd. My 

mistress loves you, but must have some proof of your love to her; you must meet 

her enemy and yours. 

 



152 

 

FRANCISCUS 

He's dead already. 

 

LOLLIO 

Will you tell me that, and I parted but now with him? 

 

FRANCISCUS 

Show me the man. 

 

LOLLIO 

Ay, see him before you kill him, in any case; 'tis but a fool that haunts my mistress 

in the shape of an idiot. Bang but his fools' coat, and 'tis well. In, in: my master!   

Exit Franciscus. Enter Alibius. 

 

ALIBIUS 

In a readiness, Lollio? 

 

LOLLIO 

Yes, sir. 

 

ALIBIUS 

Away then, and guide them in, Lollio; 

Entreat your mistress to see this sight. 

Lollio brings on the Madmen and Fools, and Isabella. The Madmen and Fools 

dance. Grotesque. In a moment of heightened reality each reveals what part of 

their character causes them to be put here, but are subdued by the crack of Lollio's 

whip. Isabella watches in horror and refuses to stay. 

'Tis perfect: well fit but once these strains, 

We shall have coin and credit for our pains. 

Exeunt. 

 

 



153 

 

5.1  A gallery in the castle  A clock strikes one. 

BEATRICE  

One struck, and yet she lies by't-- Oh, my fears! 

This strumpet serves her own ends, 'tis apparent now, 

Devours the pleasure with a greedy appetite, 

And never minds my honour or my peace, 

Makes havoc of my right; but she pays dearly for't: 

No trusting of her life with such a secret, 

That cannot rule her blood to keep her promise. 

Beside, I have some suspicion of her faith to me, 

Because I was suspected of my lord, 

And it must come from her. Hark, by my horrors, 

Another clock strikes two. 

Strike two. Enter Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

Is she not come from him yet? 

 

BEATRICE 

As I am a living soul, not. 

 

DEFLORES 

Sure the devil 

Hath sow'd his itch within her; who'd trust 

A waiting-woman? 

 

BEATRICE 

   I must trust somebody. 

 

DEFLORES 

You are so harsh and hardy, ask no counsel; 

And I could have help'd you to an apothecary's daughter 

Would have fall'n off before eleven, and thank'd you too. 

 



154 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh me, not yet? This whore forgets herself. 

 

DEFLORES 

The rascal fares so well. Look, y'are undone: 

The day-star, by this hand; see Phosphorus plain yonder. 

 

BEATRICE 

Advise me now to fall upon some ruin; 

There is no counsel safe else. 

 

DEFLORES 

    Peace, I ha't now: 

For we must force a rising; there's no remedy. 

 

BEATRICE 

How? Take heed of that. 

 

DEFLORES 

   Tush, be you quiet 

Or else give over all. 

 

BEATRICE 

   Prithee, I ha' done then. 

 

DEFLORES 

This is my reach: I'll set some part afire 

Of Diaphanta's chamber. 

 

BEATRICE 

    How? Fire, sir? 

That may endanger the whole house. 



155 

 

 

DEFLORES 

You talk of danger when your fame's on fire? 

 

BEATRICE 

That's true. Do what thou wilt now. 

 

DEFLORES 

     Push, I aim 

At a most rich success, strikes all dead sure. 

The chimney being afire, and some light parcels 

Of the least danger in her chamber only, 

If Diaphanta should be met by chance then 

Far from her lodging, which is now suspicious, 

It would be thought her fears and affright then 

Drove her to seek for succour; if not seen 

Or met at all, as that's the likeliest, 

For her own shame she'll hasten towards her lodging. 

I will be ready with a piece high-charg'd, 

As 'twere to cleanse the chimney: there, 'tis proper now, 

But she shall be the mark. 

 

BEATRICE 

I'm forc'd to love thee now, 

'Cause thou provid'st so carefully for my honour. 

 

DEFLORES 

'Slid, it concerns the safety of us both, 

Our pleasure and continuance. 

Exits. Strikes three a' clock. 

 

BEATRICE  

List! Oh, my terrors, 

Three struck by St. Sebastian's! 



156 

 

 

WITHIN 

Fire, fire, fire! 

 

BEATRICE 

How heartily he serves me! His face loathes one, 

But look upon his care, who would not love him? 

Enter Deflores. Fira-warning bell rings. 

 

DEFLORES 

The fire bell rings, the chimney works, my charge: 

The piece is ready. 

Exit. 

 

BEATRICE 

   Here's a man worth loving! 

Enter Diaphanta. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

Pardon frailty, madam; 

In troth, I was so well, I ev'n forgot myself. 

 

BEATRICE 

You've made trim work. 

 

DIAPHANTA 

   What? 

 

BEATRICE  

    Hie quickly to your chamber; 

Your reward follows you. 

Exit. Enter Alsemero. 



157 

 

 

ALSEMERO 

Oh, my dear Joanna! 

Enter Vermandero, Jasperino. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Oh, bless my house and me! 

Enter Deflores with a piece. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Knave, whither goes that piece? 

 

DEFLORES 

To scour the chimney, 

Exit. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Oh, well said, well said; 

That fellow's good on all occasions. 

 

BEATRICE 

A wondrous necessary man, my lord. 

[The piece goes off.] -- 'Tis done. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Come, sweet, to bed now 

Enter Deflores carrying the burnt body of Diaphanta. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Bless us! What's that? 

 



158 

 

DEFLORES 

A thing you all knew once: Diaphanta's burnt. 

 

BEATRICE 

My woman, oh, my woman! 

 

DEFLORES 

Now the flames are 

Greedy of her; burnt, burnt, burnt to death, sir. 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, my presaging soul! 

Deflores, what is left of her inter, 

And we as mourners all will follow her. 

Which of you spied the fire first? 

 

DEFLORES 

'Twas I, madam. 

 

BEATRICE 

And took such pains in't too? A double goodness! 

'Twere well he were rewarded. 

 

VERMANDERO 

    He shall be. 

Deflores, call upon me. 

 

ALSEMERO 

   And upon me, sir. 

Exeunt. Manet Deflores. 

 

DEFLORES 

Rewarded? Precious, here's a trick beyond me; 



159 

 

I see in all bouts both of sport and wit 

Always a woman strives for the last hit. 

Exit. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



160 

 

5.2 A Chamber 

TOMAZO 

All league with mankind I renounce forever 

Till I find this murderer. 

For in the state of ignorance I live in, 

A brother may salute his brother's murderer, 

And wish good speed to th' villain in a greeting. 

Enter Vermandero, Alibius and Isabella. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Noble Piracquo. 

We bring that news will make a welcome for us. 

Two of the chiefest men I kept about me 

I hide not from the law or your just vengeance. 

 

TOMAZO 

If you bring that calm, 

Name but the manner I shall ask forgiveness in. [Kneels.] 

 

ALIBIUS 

'Twas my wife's fortune, as she is most lucky 

At a discovery to find out lately 

Within our hospital of fools and madmen 

Two counterfeits slipp'd into these disguises, 

Their names, Franciscus and Antonio. 

 

ISABELLA  

Now that which draws suspicion to their habits, 

The time of their disguisings agrees justly 

With the day of the murder. 

 

TOMAZO 

   Oh, blest revelation! 

Like subtle lightning will I wind about 'em 



161 

 

And melt their marrow in 'em. 

Exeunt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



162 

 

5.3 Alsemero's chamber 

JASPERINO 

Your confidence, I'm sure, is now of proof. 

The prospect from the garden has show'd 

Enough for deep suspicion. 

She meets you opportunely from that walk; 

She's here. 

Exit Jasperino. Enter Beatrice. 

 

BEATRICE 

Alsemero! 

 

ALSEMERO 

  How do you? 

 

BEATRICE 

    How do I? 

Alas! How do you? You look not well. 

 

ALSEMERO 

You read me well enough; I am not well. 

 

BEATRICE 

Not well, sir? Is't in my power to better you? 

 

ALSEMERO 

Yes. 

 

BEATRICE 

 Nay, then y'are cur'd again. 

 



163 

 

ALSEMERO 

Pray resolve me one question, lady. 

Are you honest? 

 

BEATRICE 

Ha, ha, ha, that's a broad question, my lord. 

 

ALSEMERO 

But that's not a modest answer, my lady: 

Do you laugh? My doubts are strong upon me 

 

BEATRICE 

'Tis innocence that smiles, and no rough brow 

Can take away the dimple in her cheek. 

Say I should strain a tear to fill the vault, 

Which would you give the better faith to? 

 

ALSEMERO 

'Twere but hypocrisy of a sadder colour, 

But the same stuff; neither your smiles nor tears 

Shall move or flatter me from my belief: 

You are a whore. 

Trigger- Joannas (1, 2 and 3) begin to enact the action from the assault in other 

realm 

 

BEATRICE 

What a horrid sound it hath! 

It blasts a beauty to deformity; 

Upon what face soever that breath falls! 

Show me the ground whereon you lost your love. 

 

ALSEMERO 

How comes this tender reconcilement else 

'Twixt you and your despite, your rancourous loathing, 



164 

 

Deflores? He that your eye was sore at sight of, 

He's now become your arms' supporter, your 

Lips' saint. 

 

BEATRICE 

  Is there the cause? 

 

ALSEMERO 

Worse: your lust's devil, 

Your adultery. 

Trigger- Joannas action gets more frantic (Joanas 1 and 3) 

 

BEATRICE 

  Would any but yourself say that, 

'Twould turn him to a villain. 

 

ALSEMERO 

    'Twas witness'd 

By the counsel of your bosom, Diaphanta. 

 

BEATRICE 

Then hear a story of not much less horror 

Than this your false suspicion is beguil'd with. 

To your bed's scandal I stand up innocence, 

Which even the guilt of one black other deed 

Will stand for proof of: your love has made me 

A cruel murderess. 

A bloody one. 

I have kiss'd poison for't, strok'd a serpent, 

That thing of hate, worthy in my esteem 

Of no better employment, and him most worthy 

To be so employ'd I caus'd to murder 

That innocent Piracquo, having no 

Better means than that worst, to assure 

Yourself to me. 



165 

 

 

ALSEMERO 

Oh, thou art all deform'd! 

 

BEATRICE 

   Forget not, sir, 

It for your sake was done 

 

ALSEMERO 

Oh, thou shouldst have gone 

A thousand leagues about to have avoided 

This dangerous bridge of blood; here we are lost. 

 

BEATRICE 

Remember I am true unto your bed. 

 

ALSEMERO 

The bed itself's a charnel, the sheets shrouds 

For murdered carcasses; it must ask pause 

What I must do in this. Meantime you shall 

Be my prisoner only; enter my closet. 

Exit Beatrice. 

I'll be your keeper yet. Oh, in what part 

Of this sad story shall I first begin? 

Enter Deflores. 

Ha! Deflores. I can tell you 

News, sir: my wife has her commended to you. 

 

DEFLORES 

That's news indeed, my lord; I think she would 

Commend me to the gallows if she could. 

 



166 

 

ALSEMERO 

I had forgot my message; this it is: 

What price goes murder? 

 

DEFLORES 

How, sir? 

 

ALSEMERO 

I ask you, sir: 

My wife's behindhand with you, she tells me, 

For a brave, bloody blow you gave for her sake 

Upon Piracquo. 

 

DEFLORES 

   Has she confess'd it? 

 

ALSEMERO 

As sure as death to both of you, 

And much more than that. 

 

DEFLORES 

It could not be much more; 

'Twas but one thing, and that she's a whore. 

 

BEATRICE within 

He lies, the villain does belie me! 

 

DEFLORES 

Let me go to her, sir. 

 

ALSEMERO 

   Nay, you shall to her. 

Peace, crying crocodile, your sounds are heard; 



167 

 

Take your prey to you! Get you into her, sir. 

Exit Deflores. 

I'll be your pander now; rehearse again 

Your scene of lust, that you may be perfect 

When you shall come to act it to the black audience 

Where howls and gnashings shall be music to you. 

Enter Vermandero, Alibius, Isabella, Tomazo, Franciscus, and Antonio. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Oh, Alsemero. I have a wonder for you. 

I have suspicion near as proof itself 

For Piracquo's murder. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Sir, I have proof 

Beyond suspicion for Piracquo's murder. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Beseech you hear me: these two have been disguis'd 

E'er since the deed was done. 

 

ALSEMERO 

I have two other 

That were more close disguis'd then your two could be, 

E'er since the deed was done. 

 

VERMANDERO 

You'll hear me: these mine own servants-- 

 

ALSEMERO 

Hear me: those nearer than your servants 

That shall acquit them and prove them guiltless. 

 



168 

 

BEATRICE within  

Oh, oh, oh! 

 

ALSEMERO 

Hark, 'tis coming to you. 

 

DEFLORES within 

Nay, I'll along for company. 

 

BEATRICE within 

Oh, oh! 

 

VERMANDERO 

What horrid sounds are these? 

 

ALSEMERO 

Come forth, you twins of mischief. 

Enter Deflores bringing in Beatrice wounded. 

 

VERMANDERO 

An host of enemies entered my citadel 

Could not amaze like this. Joanna, Beatrice Joanna! 

Joanna 1 (maybe accompanied by the other women in their character costumes/ a 

blend of Joannas and character costumes?), losing strength, begin to enact the 

action from the assault in other realm in a crescendo through the speech 

 

BEATRICE 

Oh, come not near me, sir; I shall defile you. 

I am that of your blood was taken from you 

For your better health; look no more upon't, 

But cast it to the ground regardlessly: 

Let the common sewer take it from distinction. 

Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor 

Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible; 



169 

 

I ne'er could pluck it from him. My loathing 

Was prophet to the rest but ne'er believ'd; 

Mine honour fell with him, and now my life. 

Alsemero, I am a stranger to your bed; 

Your bed was coz'ned on the nuptial night, 

For which your false bride died. 
 

ALSEMERO 

Diaphanta! 

 

DEFLORES 

Yes, and the while I coupled with your mate 

At barley-break; now we are left in hell. 

I lov'd this woman in spite of her heart; 

Her love I earn'd out of Piracquo's murder. 

 

TOMAZO 

Ha, my brother's murderer! 

 

DEFLORES 

Yes, and her honour's prize 

Was my reward; I thank life for nothing 

But that pleasure: it was so sweet to me 

That I have drunk up all, left none behind 

For any man to pledge me. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Horrid villain! [Tomazo and Alsemero go to attack Deflores] 

Keep life in him for further tortures. 

 

DEFLORES 

No, 

I can prevent you; here's my penknife still. 

It is but one thread more, [stabbing himself] and now 'tis cut. 

Make haste, Joanna, by that token to thee: 



170 

 

I would not go to leave thee far behind. 

Dies. 

 

BEATRICE 

Forgive me, Alsemero, all forgive; 

'Tis time to die when 'tis a shame to live. 

Dies. 

 

VERMANDERO 

Oh, my name is entered now in that record 

Where till this fatal hour 'twas never read! 

 

ALSEMERO 

Let it be blotted out. Justice hath so right 

The guilty hit, that innocence is quit 

By proclamation, and may joy again. 

Sir, you are sensible of what truth hath done; 

'Tis the best comfort that your grief can find. 

 

TOMAZO 

Sir, I am satisfied; my injuries 

Lie dead before me. 

 

ALSEMERO 

What an opacous body had that moon 

That last chang'd on us! Here's beauty chang'd 

To ugly whoredom, here servant obedience 

To a master sin, imperious murder. 

I, a suppos'd husband, chang'd embraces 

With wantonness, but that was paid before; 

Your change is come too, from an ignorant wrath 

To knowing friendship. Are there any more on's? 

 



171 

 

ANTONIO 

Yes, sir, I was chang'd too, from a little ass as I was to a great fool as I am; and had 

like to ha' been chang'd to the gallows but that you know my innocence always 

excuses me. 

 

FRANCISCUS 

I was chang'd from a little wit to be stark mad, almost for the same purpose. 

 

ISABELLA 

[To Alibius] Your change is still behind, 

But deserve best your transformation. 

You are a jealous coxcomb, keep schools of folly, 

And teach your scholars how to break your own head. 

 

ALIBIUS 

I see all apparent, wife, and will change now 

Into a better husband, and never keep scholars 

That shall be wiser then myself. 

 

ALSEMERO 

Your only smiles have power to cause relive 

The dead again, or in their rooms to give 

Brother a new brother, father a child: 

If these appear, all griefs are reconcil'd. 

 

Before audience has a chance to applaud, the Joannas/women begin singing and 

go toward Beatrice Joanna in a mourning procession. Their singing purge others 

from the stage. Joannas and Beatrice-Joanna join.