Express & Star

Review: The Jew of Malta

With anti-semitism stirring across Europe, this production of Christopher Marlowe's blood-and-guts shocker is timely, thought-provoking and surprisingly funny.

Published

The plot has similarities to Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice but without any of the subtlety. Here, the villains are deeply, horribly villainous and the good guys are no better.

Jasper Britton is perfect as the rich Jew, Barabas, raging for revenge after his wealth is confiscated by the Christians of Malta to pay tribute to the Turks. Here is a man so vile that his only regret, after poisoning his own blameless daughter, is that the girl lived so long. Lanre Malaolu is excellent as Ithamore, the slave who becomes the Jew's eager, amoral fixer.

The treachery is so wicked, the body count (including a nunnery full of nuns) so outrageous that director Justin Audibert and Britton get away with playing it largely for laughs, revelling in the blackest of humour.

The most familiar face on stage is former Stars in Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly, starting his first season with the RSC as a creepily corrupt priest, executed for a crime he didn't commit. And tonight, Matthew, you're going to be hanged . . . .

The Jew of Malta runs until September 8 at the Swan Theatre, Stratford.

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