Nottingham Playhouse

Paul Wills’ set was both gloomy and intense and straight away the outrageous asylum and Vermandero’s castle both provided the perfect setting for this story of obsession, desire and aggression and the madness that each theme leads to.

The play had two plots which were linked very cleverly; the humorous sub-plot which was set in the asylum, contrasts marvellously with the violence of the central plot which sees Beatrice-Joanna blindly follow the wrong path. Her naivety to the situation doesn’t let her see the destruction that lies ahead for herself and others around her. All the men fall for Beatrice-Joanna’s cleverness in playing different roles. A lot of the men mistake her physical beauty for cleanliness of heart. Her downfall was due to the distorted Deflores’ who’s only craving was for them both to take payment for his actions by for filling his lust for Beatrice-Joanna. Whereas, in the asylum, two men are so obsessed with Isabella, whom is Alibius’ very much younger wife, they both pretend to be insane in order to be near her. Alibius keeps his wife locked up in the asylum with the mad men is so that she stays faithful and she does exactly this.

Anna Koval, who plays Beatrice-Joanna, played her character extremely well, and she created her own character and made it how she thought she should be perceived. Koval creates Beatrice-Joanna to come across as very strong minded as what she wants she will always try and get. She also goes to great lengths by using her sexuality in every way by changing her role in every situation; whichever one suits her best at that moment in time. I found her performance to be outstanding as she created a character that soon became, in my eyes, a real person that I could relate to. Koval made the audience feel sorrow for her even when they shouldn’t; this is very witty.

Adrian Schiller, who plays Deflores, played a man who was incredibly strong-minded to be with a woman with that he is entirely obsessed. Originally she was repulsed by him, however, Beatrice-Joanna soon begins to develop a sexual attraction and they both find themselves in a trap of dishonesty and yearning. Adrian Schiller is a superb Deflores; he can easily change clearly from different roles, exactly like Beatrice-Joanna, as his relationship with his love dramatically develops. I felt that Schiller played Deflores really well as it was not an easy character to play as there was a lot more to him than met the eye. He was perceived by the audience as quite an evil character but to him, everything was in the act of selfishness and love.

Overall, I thought Stephen Unwin made a fantastic decision to direct this play as it is so cleverly performed and carefully planned. I have never found a play to be as gripping and twisted as this one. I would recommend everyone to go and see it; it’s a must see.

Review by Melissa Armstrong (05-Nov-07) [ Young Critics' Circle Review ]

The Changeling

The Changeling, in my eyes, is perceived to be one of the best English tragedies since Shakespeare. The remarkable plotline of an intense, tangled web of love has the audience at the edge of their seats. The play simply bursts full of yearning, brutality and major influence. The main focus and theme throughout the play was sexual desire, the mature and delicate manner in which this was approached simply reached out to the audience and showed the chaos and retribution that can be caused.

There are twin plots in the play: in the first one Beatrice Joanna wishes to marry Alsemero, however her plan backfires as her father has arranged for her to marry Alonso de Piracquo. Finding her self stuck in this cruel situation she turns to her deformed servant Deflores to kill her future husband. He does her this favour. However it isn’t the gold he wishes to have it is her. So she finds her self stuck in the ultimate dilemma.

In the second: An asylum. Two young men are obsessed with Isabella, Alibius’s wife, and they pretend that they are insane in order to see her. Alibius’s servant Lollio also admires her and although Alibius shows her no signs of affection; she remains faithful.

The impeccable performance by Anna Koval was heartfelt and emotional; she portrayed the character of Beatrice-Joanna beautifully.

Paul Wills’ twin-level set certainly created a dismal, sombre atmosphere in which anything could happen.

Overall the director, Stephen Unwin has made this play simply faultless and a first-class, must see performance. Great job!

Further critics’ circle responses (11-Oct-07) [ Young Critics' Circle Review ]

Review

I really enjoyed The Changeling. I think that the main topics of the play were revenge and love and these were very clear to see.

The things I enjoyed about the play were all the interesting Characters. These were all very well played and clear to see how the characters are feeling throughout. I loved the set. It was the same throughout the whole play but with the clever use of lighting it made it look like a different room every scene. I also liked the make-up and costumes. The way the blood was used was very, very real and believable. The music was also very good and matched each scene very well. The story line was very good was clear to follow throughout the whole play and the actors made it clear what was happening throughout. The actors were all fantastic and did a very good job of funny and serious.

Cissy Radford, Minster School

A plea from Beatrice-Joanna to Deflores by Vicky Allcoat, Toot Hill School

write with haste to beg you to leave this castle, this country, get as far away as possible. To leave me in peace, let me be.

When I once looked to you for assistance I had not one thought of what would become of my foolish actions. I never once paused for thought at what might happen. A plan that seemed so flawless could not default in such an unnatural way, I told myself countless times. When I asked of your service I did not think you would ask for something so great in return.

It shocks me that you should have looked to me for all these years, yet I have been blind to what you have truly seen. Oh how I wish you had never seen that which you so heartily desire.

You say you show me an undying love, you wish to see me cry with tears of laughter and joy of all hours. Yet instead you take it upon yourself to make me cry tears of sadness, of despair for your own twisted pleasure. What delights you most is that which marks my misery.

If you truly love me, you will leave, take me no more and release the iron like vice you hold upon me, give me the freedom to be with the one I love not the one who forces me to loath him so.

I beg of you Deflores.

Beatrice-Joanna

From Beatrice Joanna to Alsemero by Lorna Flint

Dear my beloved Alsemero,

I feel I must write to you to explain all of the occurring matters in the past weeks. When our eyes met for the first time, I felt weak at the knees with love. Many people would ridicule me but I believe that there is such thing as "love at first sight". When your lips fell upon my hand, I knew that I needed to see you again.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been locked within the boundaries of this dark castle. I do not realise the true meaning of "lonely" anymore as I feel it constant in my heart. I had no friends and my only family was my father. As a young woman, I needed a mother or a close friend to guide me in life and show me how to become a wise lady. I am sure that my father always had the best intentions at heart; but the one thing he never gave to me was comfort. I am fully aware that I have a comfort shelter in the physical aspects but mentally I wanted my father to love me like any "ordinary middle-class father" might.

You were my first sign of sanity; or so I thought. I never wanted my life to end in this way. You made me become a person that I did not recognise: a mental, deathly and desperate creature. I gave my life for you. I want you to see just how much I cared for you. I never meant to do you any harm.

Now that the truth is in the open, I feel as though I do not need to fully explain my actions. Everything that I did was because if you and for you. I was not in the least attracted to Alonso de Piracquo; I did not want to marry him. He was a respectful, young bachelor and did not deserve what became of him, although, I was too blind to see this at the time. Deflores, it came to my notice, had taken a desire towards me and I selfishly abused it to get wanted. I never felt passionate towards Deflores and I found him exceedingly repulsive. I had no ideas of how I was going to have to "pay" him in return for his errands; if I had known, I would not have considered the means of doing so. The straight answer would be a "no".

If I could venture back into the past, I wish that I had never met you. We could have lived our lives without fate proceeding in the way; I would have not solely damaged you; innocent lives would not have been stolen and I may still be alive to live my life. On the contrary, I love you with all my heart, mind and soul. I do not regret our time together, little as it may have seemed. I suppose I want you to know that I will love you. Forever.

Yours truly,

Beatrice-Joanna.

The Changeling

I think that ‘The Changeling’ was a very well done performance, it was clever in the sense that it intertwined two stories which then came together at the end. The actors were very good and portrayed their characters’ well and got their feeling through clearly. I think the ending was interesting with the unexpected twist which no one was expecting. It isn’t a play that you can just sit and watch without thinking, you have to use your head to keep up with what is happening as it switched between stories and as it is in Shakespearean tongue it is not the easiest of plays to get your head round.

I also liked the way that the set didn’t need any adjustments even though it was changed from a castle to a madhouse as it was mainly done by lighting. The set in itself is impressive although takes up most of the stage so left little room free but space was not an issue as the actors were always coming out different doors or passages and using the set as much as possible.

Overall I would recommend this play to anyone who has an interest in theatre as it is interesting and a very unique sort of play. Definitely one to see.

Pippa Waite, The Becket School

The Changeling Review

The Changeling, written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley in 1622, is a revenge drama set in catholic Spain. It is about a girl called Beatrice whose father has arranged a marriage to Alonzo but Beatrice doesn’t want to because she wants to marry Alsemero but DeFlores, servant to Vermando, loves Beatrice and would do anything for her love. Beatrice uses this to get DeFlores to kill Alonzo but after he has done it he reveals what he really wants from Beatrice and blackmails her to have sex with him or he will tell everyone what she told him to do. The story continues after that resulting in Beatrice, DeFlores and Alonzo’s death. I liked how the stage was one stage changed into two different stages by lighting. I also liked some of the effects used, especially how they used smoke, lighting and sound to create a fire effect but when the play went on to the next scene the smoke was still there which kept reminding me that its only a play and its not real. Even though there were a few mistakes where the actors forgot their lines they made a good improvisation to cover it. For the first five minutes into the play I felt like it was dragging on and found it quite boring but after ten minutes I got into it. All of the actors are very talented especially the actor who portrayed the character Antonio. I also think the stage design was very good. I would pay to see it again.

By Hayden Penniston

The Changeling Characters

Who lives, dies and goes mad!

Beatrice: She’s a real bad one, Beatrice. She’s supposed to be getting married to Alonso but falls in love with Alsemero instead. So she gets her ugly servant Deflores to kill Alonso. Has sex with Deflores so he doesn’t tell. Gets married to Alsemero but finds out he has a potion that can tell whether she’s had sex or not. Gets her maid, Diaphanta, to fill in for her but gets Deflores to kill her. Just as she gets found out by Alsemero, Deflores stabs both her and himself. Tragic.

Alsemero: Falls in love with Beatrice as soon as he sees her. Alonso conveniently dies so he can get married to her. Doesn’t suspect a thing for most of the play, but finds out from his servant that she had done it with Deflores.

Deflores: His love for Beatrice makes a simple thing like a murder turn into a whole chain of evil things.

Vermandero: Beatrice’s father. Marches around a lot. Doesn’t smile a lot.

Alonso: Gets killed.

Tomazo: Alonso’s brother. Doesn’t really appear till the second half after Alonso dies. Walks around, making threats.

Onto the second bit. It’s set in a madhouse but it’s a bit cheerier than the first bit;

Isabella: Wife of Alibius. Has Lollio, Antonio and Franciscus trying to get off with her so she pretends to be mad to get her own back.

Alibius: Isabella’s husband but he’s old enough to be her father! Owner of the madhouse but Lollio is really in control.

Lollio: Looks after the madmen. Fancies Isabella but she doesn’t return his love.

Antonio: A servant of Vermandero who pretends to be a madman along with Franciscus. They both compete for Isabella’s love and are both unmasked at thr end.

I thought that the play was hard to understand as it was written in the 17^th century. If you managed to understand the language the plot was good and the actors were all fairly impressive. One way of improving it, though, would be to make the language easier to understand.

Thomas Hall, George Spencer School

The Changeling

By Sophie Jones

The play the Changeling is about revenge and love. The story takes two different paths that eventually meet. This is because the play was written by two people. One story is more morbid whereas the other is more light hearted. The reason one is more comic because it was written by a comedian. The play was written three years before Shakespeare died and therefore follows the usual speech and structure as Shakespearean plays.

In this particular performance the script kept the old language instead of interpreting it into modern English. This was effective as it kept the authenticity of the performance. The actors were focused and remembered all their lines at the appropriate times. This kept watchers engrossed in the suspense of each story. Not only were the actors convincing in their roles but they also commanded the stage and did the story justice.

The set was a tall piece that showcased a building structure. The stage was used for both stories and therefore needed to look like a mad house and a palace. This was executed well as the lights were dimmed when the mad house was in action. The stage had many areas which as an audience we could explore along with the actors. This extra detail kept the audience in suspense as the actors experimented with different levels of the set. The only quarrel I had with the set is that the palace wasn’t as glamorous as an audience would expect and therefore it was a little disappointing. Despite the set not completely transforming into either location the stage was still an area which was worked on well and accompanied the play properly.

The lighting used in this performance was very special and literally transformed the set and mood of the play. The lighting was used mainly to change the mood and focus on each character that performs a monologue. When the stage was dimmed it was evident that the actions that would follow would be one of a dark dwindling.

Finally the costumes that were used in the play fitted the characters on stage. The mental people wore clothes that suited their mental state. The make-up used in the play was also effective. One character had make-up on to create an image that his face was slightly distorted. The make-up was used well and in the end the result made the man look as he was meant to. However the clothes for some people were a bit modern and therefore spoiled the ethnicity of the performance.

In conclusion the play was well thought out and developed so it was performed fluently. The cast was picked correctly to each part and they all filled their roles to their full potential. Apart from a couple of spoilers the play ran accordingly and the message was received well by the audience. Overall I would recommend this play to viewers that enjoy a humorous story with dark truths and even though it is performed in Shakespearean language it is still fluent and understandable. Good Job.

Rating

****

The Changeling

The play wasn’t straightforward. It had two different storylines that kept crossing over and the Shakespearian language didn’t help anything!

But in spite of all that I knew what was happening all the time. The simple yet creative set made it easy to understand, as well as the acting…it was fabulous!

The play had a mixture of comedy, romance and few sword fights! There was something foe everyone. I enjoyed The Changeling and would recommend it as a play to see!

The music and lighting made it easy to tell what the mood of the scene was and when things were moving in either time or place. The play was easy to watch for teenagers, like us, and adults. Although the Shakespearian was hard to get your head around, if you just let it flow over you it soon becomes easy to understand.

The Changeling is definitely a play to go and see, there was a lot of blood and death but that just made everything more exciting. I really enjoyed it!

Frances Farish

Review of ‘The Changeling’ at Nottingham Playhouse (02/10/07) by Rachel Knott

As it as a Jacobean play I was going to see, I assumed that the language would make it confusing and inaccessible, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this tale of love and revenge was clear and coherent, even with two parallel plots and over ten main characters.

Managing to balance the tragic consequences of aristocrat Beatrice-Joanna’s decision to ask her devoted servant De Flores to kill Alonso (the man her father wants her to marry) because she wants to marry another nobleman called Alsmero, with the antics of Alibius’ madhouse and the way he tests his wife’s fidelity, this play has something for everyone, mixing comedy and dramatic emotional asides to create a very rounded piece.

Thanks to superb sound and lighting effects in the transition between the madhouse and the castle, two different worlds could exist along side each other, and the set, with all its corridors and stairs was very flexible in adapting to each scene of the play, as well as adding tension with its dark and foreboding pillars and double doors.

For his comic scenes, David Cardy as Lollio was probably my favourite actor, but the strong performances of Marianne Oldham as Beatrice and Adrian Schiller as De Flores are also worth looking out for.

Issues covered were: status, sexuality, madness, self-destruction, morals and the extremes people go to in the name of love, which are all still relevant to us today, in a world where morals seem to be losing their importance.

Although the Playhouse’s production was clear, I still benefited from reading a plot summary before I went, as some of the characters, I thought, were very similar. Despite this the fluidity between emotional asides and the actual play was unique and interesting, as the asides gave great insights into the characters to give it a modern feel and the smooth transition between them and the dialogue kept a good pace throughout.

The Changeling

The complicated love triangle of the Changeling makes the plot challenging to follow. The play is made up of two separate storylines which meet at the end of the play. How effectively this is done is debateable, certain characters such as Antonio do not seem to be clearly integrated between the two sides of the play resulting in their roles and motives becoming slightly confused. One storyline follows the life of Beatrice-Joanna (Anna Koval), daughter of the great Vermandero (Ken Bones). This follows Beatrice-Joanna’s manipulative nature and determination to get what she wants. The other half of the play is lighter and is set in the local sanatorium. Geoffry Lumb’s performance was comical and endearing as he played the fool of Antonio. Leon Williams was obviously enjoying the full blown insanity that the character of Franciscus had to offer and this shone through. These performances enlivened the play and gave needed relief from the heavy plot and dark settings. The set itself was very impressive. Rusting metals and aged bricks, tall pillars and heavy iron doors made the oppressive nature of the mad house believable. However I was not convinced by its versatility as the setting of the palace. Lighting did not particularly aid the transition between the two and there was little to differentiate the two locations. The set did give a labyrinthine feel to the play. Locked tunnels and passages leading away from the stage and a cupboard that seems to disappear into the background of the stage helped add to the feeling of mystery and in some ways to the secretive nature of the characters.

The love triangle between Beatrice Joanna (Anna Kovel), Deflores (Afrian Schiller) and Alsemero (Gideon Turner) was heated and entertaining. Beatrice is in love with Alsemero but it has been arranged that she shall marry Alonso (Gabriel Fleary) so she convinces her obsessed servant Deflores to do the deed and rid her of her fiancé. This one act snowballs into a series of murders and lies that eventually ends in an explosive finale. Anna Kovel brought sex appeal to the role on Beatrice Joanna and this placed besides Adrian Schillers’ cowering but dark Deflores made an effective contrast. His constant watching and insinuating could only be described as "creepy" and was certainly disturbing as I am sure was intended. Anna Kovel’s performance was convincing and entertaining, especially in the dramatic finale. The fickle and twisted relationships between her and her servants were wonderfully dark and weird.

Overall the production was pleasing: at points it tended to drag but it was rescued by more active and up beat mad house scenes. A dark comedy with a mixed cast but brought back by a handful of shining performances and an impressive if not completely versatile set.

Max Levine

‘The Changling’ review by Laura Rudolph
The English Touring Theatre’s interpretation of Middleton’s ‘The Changling’ is a pandemonium of sex, love, violence and exploitation. We see how despite Beatrice-Joanna (Anna Koval) fantastically transforming from the innocent daughter of a Catholic to a cold, heartless murderer, her naivety remains. Her repulsive servant, Deflores (Adrian Schiller), is in awe of her yet she believes he will accept the payment of gold in return for the killing of her betrothed. Gold is not enough for him; Deflores wants her body. Koval really works with the idea of Beatrice’s naivety being her tragic flaw and, eventually, the reason for her self-destruction. This is portrayed beautifully.
Paul Wills’ murky and obscure set juxtaposes wonderfully with Ben Ormerod’s sharp, bright lighting. The result is plenty of shadows for the creepiest of characters to play with and it creates a great deal of chaos in the mad-house. The clever way in which Wills manages to create a castle and a prison using one set is both impressive and admirable to any inspiring designers.
Sex and love were shown to be beautiful acts of desire as well as lurid acts of terror and violence. Schiller manages to take full advantage of this idea and when we see Deflores corrupting Beatrice-Joanna we feel completely sickened as he clearly does not love her. It does not seem like a fair payment at all, despite the fact that he had to kill a man for her. As an audience we still feel protectiveness and compassion for the beautiful Beatrice.
This production of ‘The Changling’ was horrifyingly enjoyable. Every character we love to hate and become enthralled by their lives, desperately wanting to know what they do next.

Undone

A poem by Emma Winter, written in the character of Beatrice-Joanna

Thou have undone me,

With those murderous hands,

didn’t see you loved me,

It wasn’t part of my plan.

Why did I choose the steep and thorny path?

Only to get torn

What haunts the air tonight?

So cold. Alonso.

The man I love

does not trust these eyes,

And the man I hate.

Wants

me for a bride.

Drink a potion,

I’m failing to understand….

O, murderous man,

Why has it not gone to plan?

O murderous man.

Who is

beneath

me,

Did so deceive me

Lye.

No longer a lady

Mother maybe.

The Changeling Review

Abuse, love and insanity all feature in the playhouse’s latest production of The Changeling by Middleton and Rowley, which is set in a shadowy set full of corridors, vaults and secret passages. Through bare desperation, Beatrice, the daughter of the Prince of Valencia, asks her servant DeFlores to murder the man her father wishes her to marry. This is not out of disgust but of love as she craves to marry the young, innocent Alsemero. However, although her intentions may be set out with passion, it is the dark lustrous actions of DeFlores that haunt this play. His realisation that by killing Alonzo, the nobleman Beautrice was meant to marry, meant he could then be in power of Beatrice, who was as much to blame for his murder.

More deception and cruelty dwells within the madhouse which tells the story of the jealous doctor Alibius, who entertains his guests with dancing and presentation of his patients, both fools and madmen combined like medicine to create a disturbing dance filled with an uncomfortable reality of the way madhouses were ran in the Jacobean era. For me, the most skin crawling moment from this was realising that I was at times laughing at the people within the madhouse, and although these were characters who were deceiving the Doctors and were perfectly well, they still made me feel guilt for being entertained by what was portrayed to be a sick person.

Unlike some performances, The changeling had a separate costume designer, which resulted in an astounding belief in some of the more bloody scenes, which became almost real. The most vivid example I can think of is when DeFlores murders both himself and Beatrice, turning her innocent white dress into a hell red stained mess. The way in which the material soaked up the blood gave me an idea of the gory insides of Beatrice which had be wrenched out of her onto the stage. This gave the ending of the play a severe and overwhelming impact that both shocked and engaged.

The performances technical theatre was outstanding. Lighting designer Ben Ormerod managed to create both an atmosphere of a rich wealthy Castle but also a damp cold and crazy world of the madhouse. This was complimented by Paul Willis’ set design which managed to tower above the audience making them feel totally engrossed and dominated by the presence of the imprisoning walls and balconies.However, I must mention the strength in the English Touring Theatre. The cast’s understanding and communication of the characters made the performance brilliant. The most interesting performance being from the character of DeFlores. The ability to creep me out lasted for a while but I also found that the character had a side to them that although was sickening, made me feel sorry for him.

All in all I found this to be an exciting performance and a good example of Jacabean Tragedy being brought into the twenty first century.

Kieran Crosby

What the reviewers said (04-Oct-07)

’Lust, adultery, revenge and murder- flipping ’eck, it sounds like an episode of Eastenders. Instead it’s actually the plot of The Changeling’

’I particularly liked the numerous asides straight to the audience throughout that froze the rest of the action- a deft and modern touch’

’Schiller as the obsessive DeFlores made my skin crawl- which can only be a good thing. Koval, acquits herself well- sexy but scarily fixated on getting her own way’

’Paul Wills’ inventive set...is magnificent...it’s a bleak and imposing tangle of different levels and put to great use by the cast’

Rachel Read, BBC Nottingham - 4th October 2007

’...a riveting play brought to its shocking conclusion by some very strongly drawn characters, especially ...Beatrice-Joanna and the repulsive servant, Deflores,[who] is meant to be so hideously disfigured as to be utterly repulsive. Adrian Schiller plays him far more cleverly than that, making him cold and bloodless.’

’There are some memorable performances, not least Geoffrey Lumb’s gormless, toothy Antonio,

Leon

Williams’ lunatic Franciscus and David Cardy’s bullying Lollio, cracking his whip like a lion tamer. Ken Bones brings stature, sanity and dignity as Vermandero, Beatrice’s father.’

’...in Paul Williams’ nightmarish set...there is a nice touch of irony in the illuminated exit sign at the door of the court that is also a prison. Suggesting that the damned protagonists are free to come and go is just another turn of the screw’

Pat Ashworth, The Stage - 8th October 2007

’...any attempt to bring credibility to the world of The Changeling usually falls apart, yet Stephen Unwin’s production strikes a fine balance by suggesting that court and asylum are flip sides of the same devalued coin.’

’Designer Paul Wills confines the action within a set of dank, brick walls, while Ben Ormerod’s stark lighting throws plenty of long shadows for Adrian Schiller’s DeFlores to lurk in. Schiller presents a remorseless image of one of the most malevolent villains in literature, Anna Koval convincingly betrays Beatrice’s naivety in hiring a contract killer’

’Aristotle said that the purpose of tragedy was to cleanse and purify... Unwin’s production is a guilty pleasure none the less’

****

Alfred Hickling, The Guardian - 4th October 2007.

’Middleton and Rowley’s torrid drama of sex, madness and murder’

’Paul Wills’ fortress set hints at the prisons (social, emotional, and political) in which the play’s repressed characters are caught’

’the crepuscular, shadow-stalked lighting by Ben Ormerod creates an eerie atmosphere’

Sam Marlowe, The Times - 9th October 2007.

’Beatrice-Joanna (Anna Koval), the virginal daughter of a Spanish Catholic family, who is transformed from modest bride to merciless killer...She promises the lovesick DeFlores (a wonderfully creepy Adrian Schiller) her virginity if he’ll free her from her obligation to bachelor Alonso De Piracquo (Gabriel Fleary) who has been chosen by her father.’

’By suggesting that the court is just another kind of madhouse, The Changeling feels as though its authors invented The Theatre of The Absurd a few centuries early.’

Wayne Burrows- Metro- 4th October 2007.

’Double act takes the best lines’

’Terrence Hardiman, obsessed with his work with fools and madmen as Alibius, and David Cardy tell[ing] bawdy jokes and us[ing] numerous double entendres... have the funniest lines of the play’

’Anna Koval commands great stage presence as the scarlet woman, Beatrice-Joanna’

’Geoffrey Lumb is convincing as Antonio...and Ian Mercer, the comical Jasperino, reminds me of a young Brian Glover’

’Tragedy, sexual desire, family duty, violence, and madness- they’re all there in The Changeling’

’The stark and striking set designed by Paul Wills, is put to good use as Alibius’ asylum and Vermandero’s castle and Stephen Unwin directs the cast of English Touring Theatre at a good pace’

Dawn Bond, Newark Advertiser - 5th October 2007.

’the text is splendidly poetic, and there are striking monologues’

’In the main plot Beatrice-Joanna (Anna Koval) wants to marry Alsemero (Gideon Turner). The scene where they meet is so highly-charged as to be heart-stopping; but in this play eroticism equates with guilt, evil and ruin’

’Alsemero, the centre of innocence, is contrasted to DeFlores, brilliantly played by Adrian Schiller, who lets some unsettlingly wise lines speak for themselves. DeFlores is not hammily evil; he’s a sympathetic character, dirty and pitiable.’

Alan Geary, Nottingham Evening Post - 3rd October 2007.

Review by Jake Garner, Redhill School (03-Oct-07) [ Young Critics' Circle Review ]

My Changeling review

The changeling is a tragic and love story about a woman called Beatrice–Joanna (Anna Koval) who is in love with a man called Alsemero (Gideon Turner) but her father Lord Vermandero (Ken Jones) tells her that she has to marry Alonso (Gabriel fleary) but she does not want to. Vermandero has a man called Deflores (Adrian Schiller) who works for him, Deflores has feelings for Beatrice but it is a secret love she does not feel the same way about him she thinks he is the ugliest man she has ever seen and despises him.

Beatrice wants to marry Alsemero so she asks Deflores to kill Alonso so that she can marry Alsemero but what she does not know is that Deflores wants some thing in return. So Deflores kills Alonso and says to Beatrice that he wants her to sleep with him because she is guilty as he is so she does. But there is a rule that you are not aloud to be married to someone if you are not a virgin so she tells her maid Diaphanta to disguise herself as Beatrice and sleep with Alsemero. The plan works but Beatrice thinks that her maid might tell so she tells Deflores to kill her as well. On the other hand Alonso’s brother Tomazo wants to find his brothers killer but he does not know who it is. But there is another part of the story which is set in a psycho ward where loony and mad people go, it is owned by a man called Alibius (Terrence Hardiman) who wants money so he makes his psycho ward like a freak show in a circus.

He has a psycho ward guard named Lollio (David Cardy) who likes Alibius’s wife Isabella (Marianne Oldham), meanwhile a man named Antonio (Geoffrey Lumb) works for Vermandero but disguises as a loony to tell Isabella that someone loves her. There is also a man named Pedro (Leon Williams) who works for Vermandero but also disguises as a madman Franciscus to also tell Isabella the same thing.

The only person I have not told you about is Jasperino (Ian Mercer) who is Alsemero’s right hand man and helps him in anyway.

I would recommend this brilliant piece of theatre for anyone who likes tragedy love and comedy I really enjoyed it was a brilliant experience for me.

By Jake Garner, Redhill School

A letter from the spirit of Beatrice-Joanna, by Lorna Flint (03-Oct-07) [ Young Critics' Circle Review ]

Dear my beloved Alsemero,

Now that the truth is in the open, I feel as though I do not need to fully explain my actions. Everything that I did was because of you and for you. I was not in the least attracted to Alonso de Piracquo; I did not want to marry him. He was a respectful, young bachelor and did not deserve what became of him, although, I was too blind to see this at the time. Deflores, it came to my notice, had taken a desire towards me and I selfishly abused it to get what I wanted. I never felt passionate towards Deflores and I found him exceedingly repulsive. I had no ideas of how I was going to have to "pay" him in return for his errands; if I had known, I would not have considered the means of doing so. The straight answer would be a "no".

Yours truly,

Beatrice-Joanna.