The Defamation – Itchy Feet Theatre / Riverside Studios, London

The Defamation brings a contemporary and feminist twist to Shakespeare’s women plus one current celebrity. The current format is not substantial enough to build on that premise, however.

The Defamation

An Amber Heard-like character arrives in the afterlife to find she, and every woman who has ever lived or been imagined, must face trial. Was she innocent as a flower or an evil villain? Such, it would seem, are the only options.  No middle ground when it comes to the court of public opinion. And no end to the judgement. So far, so close to the facts (minus the afterlife stuff).

This is the premise of The Defamation, on now at Riverside Studios as part of their Bitesize Festival.  The Defamation is written by Jen Tucker and produced by Itchy Feet Theatre.  Aside from our Heard (the character is named Charity and played by Zoe Kirk), this unusual purgatory is peopled by Shakespearean characters.  There’s Lady Macbeth (Giulia Duggan), Desdemona (Jen Tucker), and Ophelia (Zora Owen). Perhaps a little more obscure are Hermione of The Winter’s Tale (Lizzie O’Reilly) and Hero of Much Ado About Nothing (Lily Nova Pascoe).  A character sheet explains their stories so aim to arrive in time to read that before the play begins.  A final character, Gilmore (Aaron Thakar) is the jailer of this Kafkaesque prison, and a friend turned foe.

Kafkaesque, But Not Kafkaesque Enough?

We come, now, to a favourite question of the Salterton Arts Review: is this premise suited to a play?  On this occasion, I am not so sure.  As the ‘Bitesize’ moniker would indicate, its running time is short – just under an hour.  But even then I felt the premise was exhausted before the curtain fell, as it were.  If the afterlife indeed involves so many conversations about men and their unfair treatment of women, I had better do like Jane Eyre and “keep in good health, and not die” in order to avoid it.  

Yet it was the premise which drew me to see this work in the first place.  So there is something there, but also something not quite working.  I think the story needs a little more depth and character development, for a start.  It’s not quite Kafkaesque or plot-driven enough to discover much more of the women, including “Charity”, than what we already know.  It’s also a little unvaried in its approach to gender and power relations. And although the verse and Shakespearean language is appropriate to most of the characters, the acting was not consistently strong enough to break through the formality and connect with the audience.

To come back to my question of whether this makes a good play, I wondered instead if there is a good short story to be had from this idea.  I like a company who take risks on a novel format, nonetheless, and would happily check out future work by Itchy Feet Theatre.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 2/5

The Defamation on at Riverside Studios until 25 July 2024. Bitesize Festival continues until 28 July 2024.  More info and tickets here.