By: Megan Callahan, Staff Writer 

The Duchess of Malfi is a truly haunting, ominous, yet amazing play that will have you on the edge of your seat. Throughout the entire play, the amazing acting from the cast had the audience in the palm of their hands.  

When Hank Rion, the director, first came onto the stage before the play, he stated that they are using the same scripts from when this play was originally written in 1612. 

The original writer of the play, John Webster, wrote the play in a particularly ominous way, and the way it was written included several eerie metaphors and symbolisms regarding death and revenge.  

It could have been a very different play if the director had chosen to revise the script into today’s time. And it’s a good thing he stuck to the original script.  

Webster’s vision of the play is dark, eerie, and at times a little bit unsettling to some people, but that’s the brilliance of it. Watching the characters go through the betrayal, tragedy or even obsession is what the audience had on the edge of their seats.  

The plot of the play is about a Duchess (played by Addie Kyle), who goes against her brother’s controlling wishes to stay a widow by remarrying Antonio Bologna (played by Taiger Glenn).  

After the brothers find out their sister went against their obsessive needs to control the Duchesses’ life, the characters, Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria (played by David Cooper, and The Cardinal (played by Mattis Ahlgrimm), get darker as the play goes on. 

The entire cast did an amazing job playing the roles they were cast to play. Every actor not only did a great job playing the part they were cast to play, but they also did a great job portraying what each character was going through within the play. 

 Addie Kyle’s character (The Duchess) goes through a lot of betrayal as the play goes on, and yet Kyle’s character never gave up and refused to be ignored. Kyle did a fantastic job portraying all of the emotions that Duchess faced.  

But it was David Cooper who wasn’t afraid to hold back the truly dark, and obsessive essence that his character soon became. Playing an evil character can be a challenging role to pull off, especially since his character starts off as a controlling yet loving brother who thinks he has the Duchess’ best interest at heart. 

 but you could tell in his acting that Cooper dove headfirst into this role.  

The acting in this play is on a completely different level than any other school play. Throughout both Act 1 and 2 you could hear a pin drop. The music also had a great effect on the play.  

Throughout the play, the music got increasingly eerie, and ominous as the play went on. 

Hank Rion’s take on John Websters, The Duchess of Malfi, will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat.