Cumbersome muddle: Women, Beware the Devil, at the Almeida Theatre, reviewed

Rupert Goold’s new show, Women, Beware the Devil, has great costumes, sumptuous sets and an intriguing chessboard stage like a Vermeer painting. Impressive to look at but that’s where the good news ends. Dramatist Lulu Raczka should have thought twice before writing a script about witchcraft, which was bound to invite comparisons with The Crucible, one of the greatest plays in the theatrical canon. Raczka is no Arthur Miller. She seems to take a dim view of human beings and her writing feels like a vehicle for her vengeful sense of revulsion. Her female characters are mostly skittish, cackling ninnies and her males are lusty, arrogant, predatory monsters. No figure in this play is remotely likeable and no one has a dramatic goal that makes any sense.

The yarn is set in a sprawling 17th-century mansion where childless Elizabeth must ensure that her brother Edward impregnates his young wife Catherine so that their family can retain the estate. If Catherine fails to breed, the property will pass to unknown relatives. Why this anxiety troubles Elizabeth but not Edward isn’t clear. Elizabeth sets about getting her sister-in-law pregnant by finding a dim Irish skivvy, Agnes, who is rumoured to be a sorceress, and asking her to join the household. Agnes is instructed to conjure a baby out of Catherine. How exactly? Don’t ask. The question isn’t tackled. More importantly, why is Catherine not pregnant already? She’s an attractive young woman recently married to the sex-mad Edward who rapes every female he can get his hands on, including his own sister. How come he won’t touch Catherine? (Answer: if he seduced her, the story would fall apart. The writer seems to have hoped to solve this problem by pretending it didn’t exist.