The Changeling at the Hall for Cornwall

If Jacobean theatre was television drama, Steve Unwin’s direction of The Changeling would be an episode of Hollyoaks. It’s got all the right components ­– sexy young things eager to get in the sack, sinister bad guys after their wicked way and murder, lust and madness to boot. The comedy is slathered on with a spoon and of course there’s an overriding moral message to wash it all down with – but if it’s serious drama you’re after, you might not like the taste of it.

Written in 1622, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s play about the depths lovers will go to to sate their passions may lack the linguistic sophistication of The Bard, but it still packs a 'pop' punch.  The narrative centres around Beatrice-Joanna, a young woman so eager have her own way and marry whom she chooses that she is willing to do away with her father’s preferred suitor to get it.

The loathsome servant Deflores - whose obsession for Joanna is matched pound for pound by her detestation of him ­- becomes her hitman, but the price she’ll pay for his service is high (they don’t call him the ‘deflowerer’ for nothing). And so the play unravels, charting Joanna’s demise and her tawdry relationship with Deflores and mirroring the court with the madhouse where themes of love and lunacy play out simultaneously with dramatically different results.

Adrian Schiller is impressively sinister as Deflores, his baseness and evil intent are so matter-of-fact that you fast realise he is the most honest character among them and consequently you somehow find yourself admiring him. Or perhaps said admiration manifests itself because Schiller’s subtle performance is contrasted with the shouting Anna Koval as Joanna – whose manipulative, demanding Beatrice seems incapable of musing to herself, confiding in the audience or hurling insults at anything less than 130 decibels. If we are supposed to loathe Joanna, wanting her to be silenced from the outset then Koval does a blinding job, but if her descent into depravity is supposed to elicit sympathy and compassion despite her antics, then her depiction is left seriously wanting. Still at least Koval’s been to acting school, which is more than can be said for much of the Hollyoaks' cast.