THIS PLAY WILL RUN APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS WITH
ONE INTERMISSION. 

SYNOPSIS: In this Italian tale of greed and deception, Antonio is not just her steward; her two controlling brothers, the Cardinal and Ferdinand, are not just looking out for her, and the Duchess is not just another famous and unstoppably elegant aristocrat. With every glance orchestrated by the Cardinal and Ferdinand, the Duchess could be likened to a prisoner kept untouchably high in her very glamorous ivory tower. When her brothers inform her she is to remain chaste forever after the mourning of her late husband, her headstrong disobedience make the stakes even higher as, it turns out, her title of "Duchess" means more than her life. 

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Check out the video trailer here! 

The latest production photos are in. Check them out here!

Click here to check out the production playbill, complete with bios, Director's Notes and more about the original 17th Century play...

JOIN US for PUB TRIVIA NIGHT! 
Can you keep your wits about you after a night of violent, lusty, and decadent theater?
Come play with us and find out—Saturday, February 4, we’ll have a game of pub trivia in our Morrison Lounge after the 7:30pm show. Show us what you’ve got. 
This event is free and open to the public.  
What: Pub Trivia Night               
When: Sat., Feb. 4 @ 10pm Where: Artists Rep’s Morrison Lounge 

PRODUCTION HISTORY:  This is the World Premiere of Joseph Fisher’s adaptation of the classic The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. Written in 1612, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi was published for the first time in 1623, and is loosely based on true events that occurred between about 1508 and 1513. The Duchess was Giovanna d'Aragona, whose father, Arrigo d'Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples. Her husbands were Alfonso Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, and (as in the play) Antonio Bologna.

PLAYWRIGHT: Joseph Fisher is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where he received his BFA in Playwriting. In 2004 Joseph finished his fourth and final year as playwright-in-residence at Stark Raving Theatre where they produced world premieres of his plays Prometheus Bound, Tundra, Cupid & Psyche, and Faust.Us. In 2004, Joseph received productions of his plays The New House at Artists Repertory Theatre and Thunderbird at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York.  Joseph’s plays have also appeared at Kitchen Dog Theater, Portland Center Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Mark Taper Forum.  Joseph is a recipient of the Playwrights First Award and the Charlotte Woolard Award, as well as a 2002 grant from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays. He has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists in New York since 2002. Joseph currently resides in Los Angeles where he is a 2005 Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellow.

"If Quentin Tarantino remade the classic Jacobean tragedy... " said Aaron Scott for Portland Monthly Magazin'es Culturephile. Read the full review here.

"...a love-hate fascination in which esteem blends with the pleasure of watching the mighty fall," said
Richard Wattenberg for The Oregonian. Read the full review here.

"...the play retains its interest throughout, in no small part because of the actors’ knowing, agile performances and the director’s similar agility from scene to scene,"said Matthew Korfhage of the Willamette Week. Read the full review here.

"The dialogue  was snappy, thought-provoking....and full of HUMOR!  A truly unique piece of theater." 
- Audience member

  “It was edgy; it was provocative; it grated on my nerves, and it was absolutely divine!” - Audience member

 “Sex, drugs and enhanced interrogation techniques: what’s not to like?!”  - Audience Member