That much said, I will admit that The Changeling co-authored by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley is one of that era's more interesting examinations of sexual obsession and the ease with which one sin leads to another. It cleverly intertwines the two parallell stories of a virginal gentlewoman and the wife of an insane asylum warden. Dramatic conflict and meaty acting opportunities abound which no doubt accounts for the many 20th Century revivals. Which brings us to the current revival presented by the Theatre for New Audience at St. Clements' Church. It is so avant-garde, in fact, that the play and the players take a back seat to Robert Woodruff's often disturbing imagery.
Bloody crotches are everywhere.
A woman sitting next to me put her head down during a scene in which women strapped to hospital gurneys are subjected to clitorectomies by the asylum's guardian who all the while keeps up a conversation with his employer, the asylum keeper. I was as horrified as my neighbor but too mesmerized to turn away from the dance-macabre movement of the women's mouths as each one took her turn to be subjected to this horrific procedure. There are also old-style glass enclosed telephone booths used as padded cells, connecting hallways, to conduct love trysts and commit murder. The large cast deserves all-around commendation, with Marian Hinkle and Christopher McCann particularly outstanding as Beatrice and De Flores. Her friend loved it.