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The White Devil National Theatre 1991 - Review Headlines

 "A production that poses real questions about the nature of deprivation, power, lust, morality, religious corruption and sexual equality, as relevant today as it was in 1612. Compulsive viewing."
Pete May, Review, Midweek, 27 June 1991

           

"Webster’s pessimistic vision is starkly captured and the play flows seamlessly, if slowly […] His spectacular set – evoking a ruined cathedral, dominated by a huge, burnished wrecking ball and littered with shattered religious tablets – is an elegant surrounding on which Webster’s feral characters sparkle like counterfeit jewels […]"
Nick Curtis, Review, Plays & Players, August 1991

                                                                                 

"[I]t may be that the very spectacular-ness of this production exposes The White Devil’s cold black-and-gold heart. Whatever the reason, this evening of expertly-achieved entertainment may somehow leave you cold too."
Sam Willetts, 'Heart Of Gold', What's On, 26 June 1991

                                                                                 
"The White Devil is like a bad dream but without the vividness that makes a really good nightmare. It is like a tedious opera set to a rather good libretto which is proceeds to drown; under all the florid, self-admiring orchestration you can barely hear the melody. [...] But this is designer theatre, grand and sadistic but psychologically tame, where actors are only figures in a landscape and characters play second fiddle to costume."
John Peter, ‘Confronting A Classic Problem’, The Sunday Times, 23 June 1991

"[Prowse']s production also moves at so funereal a pace that it’s often hard to recall the plot is propelled by illicit passion…"
Michael Arditti, ‘Grave Obsessions’, Evening Standard, 19 June 1991