Giving Revenger's Its Due

Abstract This article focuses on two productions of Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy staged in the summer of 2008, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and the National Theatre, London. Jonathan Moore – an actor, director, and playwright known for his work in opera with production designer David Blight – directed the play for the Royal Exchange Theatre. Celebrated choreographer, designer, and director Melly Still put Revenger's on the Olivier Theatre stage with co-designer Ti Green. The unintentionally paired productions in Manchester and London offered a unique theatrical laboratory for exploring the different perspectives on Vindice as a character, retributive justice, and the place of women in a sex-based patriarchal power structure that Revenger's can be made to convey. Despite the many differences between the two productions' presentations of Vindice and the trio of wronged women at the centre of Revenger's, both made effective use of the early modern practice of actors doubling roles to visually link the women who motivate the play's acts of vengeance.