Central’s Theatre Ensemble is performing the Jacobean classic “The Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster for the fall production.

“The Duchess of Malfi” is a 17th century tragedy about a duchess whose brothers try to depose her after she remarries beneath her station.

“It’s very sexy and lewd; there’s lots of violence,” Skyler Gahley, senior theatre performance major, said. “The music is dark and indicative. It’s like being immersed in the time period.”

Gahley’s role is the character of the Duchess. This play marks her sixth production.

Isaac Lee, freshman theatre performance major, plays the Cardinal, one of the Duchess’ brothers. He believes the play works as a metaphor for cycles of violence and corruption.

“[It says] that brute force and strength are not enough on [their] own, that we can’t forget sensitivity and feminine traits to be human,” Lee said.

Travis Franks, senior theatre performance major, describes the play as bold because it’s willing to show negative facets of religion.

Franks portrays Delio, the best friend of the Duchess’ lover.

“Take the Cardinal character, he’s of the Catholic Church, and it’s shown how corrupt he is in a time people didn’t dare to criticize it,” Franks said.

Lee said the Cardinal was a difficult role to take on.

“The hardest part about playing the Cardinal is finding him within myself. I don’t consider myself intimidating,” Lee said. “The Cardinal can quell people’s energy with the raise of an eyebrow. I had to look for that.”

Because it’s a classical piece, there were some challenges the actors faced while developing their characters.

“The language, class and structure, how they interacted, how they were always grappling for power, it shaped everything,” Riley Newman, junior theatre performance major, said. “It’s so different than today.”

Newman plays Roderigo, one of the courtiers in the play. This is his first production at Central.

Pre-theatre major Shauntel Pyper portrays a character called “Old Lady,” whom she nicknamed Amaris, which means “lovely.” Her character is known for being unattractive.

“She’s impoverished and a servant,” Pyper said. “I had to learn how she’d act and talk, how it’d be different than courtiers because of her status.”

Pyper is in agreement with Lee that the most important take-away of the play is the dynamic between the sexes.

“I want the audience to get a sense of how important women are,” Pyper said. “Not that femininity is more important than masculinity, just a sense of equality and balance.”

An important aspect of Gahley’s research about the Duchess was learning about Catholicism and its views of sex.

“I read a book from the time period called ‘The Mysteri of Fucking,’” Gahley said. “It’s about a woman telling her cousin how to have sex, like sneaking it at parties. It’s so weird.”

Since the play takes place in the 17th century, many of the actresses had to get used to wearing costumes that were more challenging than modern clothing.

“The corsets are thick and heavy. It’s like it’s pushing your organs around,” Gahley said. “The director would have to shout ‘Louder, louder!’ because we were being too quiet, trying to learn how to breathe.”

Haley Bertelsen, junior theatre performance major, wears a costume that has twelve layers in the skirt, making it difficult to move. She portrays Julia, the Cardinal’s coy mistress.

“I usually am in comedic plays and in funny roles,” Bertelsen said. “It’s incredibly challenging to try something classical.”

Kyle Lippman, senior theatre performance major, likes his comfortable costume. He has a large pillow-like belly strapped to his waist to give him the appearance of a gut for his character Castruchio, an old man and husband to Julia.

“You can rest things on it, like goblets. It’s fun,” Lippman said. “But it was hard to figure out how to adapt to be an old character physically.”

Gahley also describes how the intensity of the play will draw audiences in. While it is a classical play, it still has a modern feel to it due to its themes.

“It’s such a nice piece of art that we transported through time. It’s like Shakespeare,” Gahley said. “It’ll touch them in weird ways they won’t expect.”