Death and Jacobean drama comes to The Playhouse in Leeds where LEO OWEN caught Utopia’s African Duchess of Malfi

Loosely based on events occurring between 1508 and 1513, John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi is a renaissance tragedy, telling the story of a Duchess who secretly marries beneath her class against the wishes of her scheming brothers. Specialising in the re-imagining of classic texts, Leeds-based company Utopia Theatre’s latest project, Iyalode of Eti transports Webster’s classic to Africa.

Dressed in costume designer Adesola Obede’s vibrant traditional garb, complete with bead necklaces to signify tribal identity, a cast of eleven sing, dance, act and provide musical accompaniment. This tribal backdrop complements Webster’s obsessive sense of family honour and the spirit world nicely fits its gruesome narrative. Designer Emma Williams’ simple set of totem poles jutting from a circular wooden platform is a nod towards traditional theatre in the round. Alongside this, Chris Speight’s atmospheric lighting completes Iyalode’s bleak mood, apparent in the opening funeral procession. Slow-motion tribal dancing, chanting and musical accompaniment from Sola Akingbola and Ayan De First mark the passing of Iyalode’s (Kehinde Bankole) first husband.

Webster’s richly poetic language is skilfully transformed to this new African setting with an almost godlike narrator clad in bright white explaining Iyalode’s backstory. After the death of her husband, she’s harshly forbidden to remarry by her brothers Oluawo, (Tundo Euba) and Oloye Olorogun (Kehinde Bankole), who claim being married twice is “a loose woman’s indulgence”. Young, fiercely independent and full of life, Iyalode is desperate to avoid living without love and so remarries the low-born Oguntade, a palace guard/watchman.

From here, the action of the story dramatically speeds up and it’s not long before she has stealthily managed to birth three children, despite her brothers’ spy Esubiyi looking on. Aside from the implausibility of all this, Iyalode’s naïve admittance of her deceptions to Esubiyi, coupled with confusing character identification and poor enunciation makes Utopia’s adaptation hard to engage with.

Performances are often over-exaggerated and panto-esque in style, uncomfortably creating humour where it doesn’t always fit. That said, Tundo Euba rapidly switches from ranting aggressor to calmly stating he’s off to bed, perfectly illustrating his character’s madness; further reinforced by the throne of skulls he sits upon. As Esubiyi, Tunji Falana feverishly delights in sharing his revelations and doubts of his conscience directly with the audience.

Colourful and brave, Moji Kareem’s production remains contemporarily relevant, exploring themes of corruption, power abuse, revenge, social inequality, sexism, class and family/tribal honour. The overall verdict however, is a negative one with disappointingly static action, despite high body counts.

Iyalode of Eti showed in The Barber Studio September 22-24 before continuing its tour: http://www.utopiatheatre.co.uk/