In an act of fortuitous serendipity, the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon provides a perfect setting for Webster's The Duchess of Malfi which on occasion plays “from the ruins of an ancient abbey". In a departure from the traditional Jacobean setting, the Studio Theatre Club's production delves into 1960s gangland culture. The audience are taken on a journey through an increasingly tense psychological thriller, where the dissonant characters are “merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied which way please them".

While it would have been all too easy for director Matt Kirk to overplay Webster's poetic tragedy, the acting is refreshingly naturalistic and conversational throughout. Some slight changes have been made to the family ties present in the original text, and the performance runs at a palatable two hours in total.

Two cast members open the play from within the audience, instantly grabbing our attention. A tale of love commences with the widowed young Duchess marrying Antonio in secret undeterred by the disapproval of her father the Cardinal, and brother Ferdinand. Swooping over the Duchess' shoulders like twisted realisations of Jiminy Cricket, these two impart their flawed and unwanted advice, sealing the couple's doomed union along with the fates of the rest of the cast as they suffer increasing madness, violence and death.

While the production features very little in the way of set pieces, the action is cleverly permeated by subtle lighting under the expertise of designer Jon Viner and operator Nigel Tait. Upstage and encircled by fairy lights, the apparent innocence of the word "Malfi" becomes progressively more ironic as the plot develops. At key moments church windows are projected onto the stage walls, eerily presided over by the Cardinal's larger-than-life shadow. Although the Duchess and Antonio tend to be brightly illuminated, darkness is otherwise an overriding theme which is reflected on stage by torch-lit scenes; picking out Bosola's eyes as sinister points of focus under his signature bowler hat, or the vital document intrinsic to the Duchess' undoing.

Immediately following the interval, Katherine Steiner emotively performs a gentle, melancholic song to rapidly pull the audience back into the action. Suitable snippets of 1960s music such as The Beatles' 'Do You Want to Know a Secret?', and Nancy Sinatra's cover of Cher's 'Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)' serve as additional narrative exposition during scene changes.

Through immense use of expression and audience asides, Bosola (Jon Shepherd) is a driving force for the plot. His pace is varied, and the complexity of the character clearly expressed. Francesca Richards as the Duchess presents an animated transition from innocent young lover, dressed in white to funereal stoic resignation. Ben Morel-Allen gives a genuinely warming and affable performance as Antonio, which is well paired with David Robertson's friendly Delio. Ferdinand's descent into madness and lycanthropy is intensely portrayed by Matthew Fyfield, whose use of wolfish behaviours and possessive maniacal outbursts contrast well with the otherwise rational dialogue. Stephen Briggs is entirely convincing as the oxymoronic, duplicitous Cardinal, and succeeds in giving depth to this often one-dimensional villain. The Cardinal's mistress and otherwise serial adulterer, Julia (Mary Horan) is a vision akin to Jessica Rabbit who seductively interacts with all her many admirers.

I emphatically recommend purchasing tickets for one of the remaining performances of this smart, credible, immersive and intelligently presented tragedy.