The plotting is so erratic that I began to wonder if I had fallen asleep during key scenes... I apologise for such a vague summary, but there were long stretches when I honestly had little idea of what was going on.” Join Costume Designer for Women, Beware the Devil Evie Gurney for this introduction to costume design where Evie will share her approach to designing the costumes for the show as well as practical approaches to getting started as a costume designer. You’ll also have the opportunity to hear about Evie’s career and journey from the fashion industry to designing for the stage. The cast includes Leo Bill ( The Duchess of Malfi; Posh), Carly-Sophia Davies ( Spring Awakening; The Eternal Daughter), Aurora Dawson-Hunte ( Queens; Cherry Orchard) Ioanna Kimbook ( The Duchess of Malfi; Bitter Wheat), Nathan Laryea ( Spring Awakening; Tartuffe), Lydia Leonard ( Little Eyolf; Wolf Hall), Alison Oliver ( Best Interest; Conversations with Friends) and Lola Shalam. Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, founding Artistic Director of Headlong (2005 to 2013), Associate Director at the RSC and Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres (2002 to 2005).

Women Beware The Devil, Almeida Theatre, Islington Review: Women Beware The Devil, Almeida Theatre, Islington

There’s a lot to enjoy - seductions and betrayals, temptations and terror. And there will be sex and violence!” So runs the flip opening spiel to this funny-peculiar effort by London-born Lulu Raczka, which ambitiously transports us to superstition-steeped 1640. Those lines are delivered by the Devil himself – chattily conspiratorial, horn-headed. Dubheasa Lanipekun (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatremaker, filmmaker and photographer. In her lens-based practice she was most recently a Sundance Institute Fellow on the Ignite Programme with Adobe, winning a place with her debut short film Blue Corridor 15 (Dazed/ ICA/ BBC). Her work is motivated by finding the social truth within drama. She is interested in work which revolves around and interrogates the theme of liberation. Her practice is grounded in a deep interest in the politicised lives of people. The play needs greater cunning and more significant horror, too. It’s all well and good for a show to chance the word “boo” but not if one’s response to the scare tactics is a mere shrug." The sweep of literary and visual influences are easy to spot: The Crucible, Women Beware Women, Vermeer, even Downton Abbey. Thematically, it foregrounds the question of inherited estates – wealth and class - and how that relates to individual and national identity. Women Beware The Devil (Image: Marc Brenner) For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire (West End); Romeo and Juliet; The Duchess of Malfi; Machinal; Summer and Smoke.For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family’s legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft. Skewering audience anxieties… Callum Scott Howells and Rosie Sheehy as Romeo and Julie at the National. Photograph: Marc Brenner Lulu Raczka’s Almeida debut manages to subvert so many things that it’s difficult to know where to start with a straightforward description of it. " Opera includes: The Handmaid’s Tale; The Winter’s Tale; Powder Her Face (ENO); The Knife of Dawn (Royal Opera House); Flux; Rush Hour 10: Motion (Southbank Sinfonia); Gazelle Twin & NYX (Ovalhouse/ Southbank Centre).

Women, Beware the Devil, Almeida Theatre review - bewitching Women, Beware the Devil, Almeida Theatre review - bewitching

Rupert Goold will direct Leo Bill, Carly-Sophia Davies, Aurora Dawson-Huntr, Ioanna Kimbook, Nathan Laryea, Lydia Leonard, Alison Oliver and Lola Shalam. Working as a farm girl on the large estate belonging to Lady Elizabeth ( Lydia Leonard) and her brother, she enters in rags, brought to the house for what initially appears to be a witch trial at the hands of Lady Elizabeth. It’s the 1640s and the Civil War is on the horizon: Puritanism is shedding fear and discontent amongst the people, and rumours of witches are the easiest way to explain the undercurrent of death, disease, and existential dread which permeates Britain. ENJOY the play – it’s pretty long .” With these words, the Devil (charmingly played by Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea) ends his prologue and opens the action on Women, Beware the Devil , a new play by Lulu Raczka at the Almeida Theatre. For the Almeida: The Tragedy of Macbeth ; Chimerica (also West End, Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design). If Arthur Miller (often irked when the humour in his plays was overlooked) had decided to use witchcraft merely as the basis for a comedy with elements of magical realism, he might have written something like this beguiling new play. But Miller would have injected more rigour and discipline.

Show Details

Raczka’s days of hoping to catch the eye of tour bookers at the Edinburgh fringe are thankfully past. These days, she mixes writing plays with TV work on shows including tautly plotted, enjoyably dark Netflix historical drama Medici: Masters of Florence. This production contains death, violence (including sexual violence), self-harm, guns, scenes of a sexual nature, strong language and the use of blood. It also includes haze, flashing lights, strobe and sudden loud noises. Recommended for ages 13+. Set in 1640s England, Lady Elizabeth tries to protect her family’s legacy when it’s under threat. She calls upon Agnes, a servant suspected of witchcraft, who tries to elicit her dark dreams on the house. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea, Carly-Sophia Davies, Aurora Dawson-Hunte, and Lola Shalam. Photo: Marc Brenner

Women, Beware the Devil London Reviews and Tickets Women, Beware the Devil London Reviews and Tickets

In Women, Beware the Devil, that evil shows itself in the role of Elizabeth, who as a noblewoman is barred from owning property, or making a life for herself – so she shamelessly manipulates her brother into doing what she wants.No surprise then to find him drawn to playwright Lulu Raczka’s tale of necromancy in 1640s England framed by present day musings on all that is devilish. Because of the way society works, women just see things differently, and they act differently. I was interested in exploring that.” Alison Oliver and Lydia Leonard in Women, Beware The Devil (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Women, Beware the Devil at the Almeida review: a wild

You want a entertaining play that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, part satire, part comedy of manners, part supernatural thrillerDoing that feels so much tougher now.” In the intervening years, accommodation costs have soared. And this month, the Edinburgh Fringe’s organisers warned that the festival is likely to shrink by a third in 2024, as the city introduces new rules that make it difficult for locals to rent out their homes to visitors. Being forced to write something that’s not your idea makes you more versatile,” she says. “Plus, I’m a TV obsessive, so I really love it. If you want to be a full-time writer, you can’t just work in theatre because you get paid, like, once every five years.” This odd treatment of early English Civil War (say 1642) landed gentry often hits the mark but also misfires like the musket wielded by a terrifying mute Roundhead who enters the manor house at the close of an arduous evening. But in some of the most candid dismantling of the fourth wall that I can remember, Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea as the Devil (sporting a wonderful pair of miniature horns and reading the Evening Standard) has told us in a framing device that the piece will be a long haul. He adds that we can at least look forward to sex scenes and an execution. England, 1640. A war is brewing. Rumours are flying. A household is in crisis... and the Devil's having some fun. For Lady Elizabeth, nothing is more important than protecting her family's legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft. But Agnes has dark dreams of her own for this house.