First performed by the King’s Men – Shakespeare’s own company – ‘privately at the Blackfriars and publicly at the Globe’, The Duchess of Malfi is a thrilling combination of brilliant coups de théâtre, horrific set-pieces and vivid characters – notably the tragic Duchess and the subtly villainous Bosola – all lit by Webster’s obsessional imagination.

This most intimate Jacobean tragedy was the ideal curtain-raiser for our first season in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Gemma Arterton returns to the Globe in the title role of the Duchess (2014), bringing 'beauty, determination, and a sense of moral goodness' (The Guardian). Gemma made her professional stage debut at the Globe Theatre in 2007, when she won huge critical acclaim as Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost.