John Webster's vast and intricate tapestries of death and decay present a simple but significant challenge in production: his verse is often far finer than his plays. Dominic Hill's production of Webster's last great work is a light-footed attempt to negotiate the pitfalls that Webster's verse provides for his tragedy. It succeeds by taking Webster less seriously than he does himself.
The treacherous first scene is a case in point. It is laced with a sensual scheme of spider web imagery that evokes the corruption and hypocrisy of the Italian court, but it doesn't provide any fuel for the dramatic motor. Keith Fleming's ebullient Antonio rattles out Webster's eloquent character assassinations with such dash that it is easy to miss the fact that we haven't yet been given any reason to care about them. This humdrum scene is the first hurdle at which most productions of the play fall. Thanks to Fleming, Dundee Rep's resident company just about survives. For a while, it all becomes plain sailing.
The delightful relationship between Antonio and Irene Macdougall's Duchess is perhaps the production's strongest card. Fleming makes Antonio, an irritatingly pompous character, into a raffishly likable chap with whom the Duchess can convincingly fall in love. Their scenes are genuinely touching rather than sentimental.
When their idyll is shattered, the tragedy has genuine weight and motion. The grim inevitability with which the body count mounts carries a sickening shock factor Jacobean tragedy rarely achieves - the fascination of a car crash in slow motion. This is partly possible because the extraordinary events are seen with the same disbelief by the characters. Bosola's line: "Such a mistake/As I have often seen in a play", in the impossibly bloody final scene, gets a roar of laughter.
Bosola (Rodney Matthew), unwilling henchman and hired sword to the Duchess's tastefully batty brothers, is central to this newfound levity. A fabulous running gag has him gawp with increasing disbelief every time he has to hoist on to his shoulders yet another of the corpses he has just created. But this levity causes the production to fall at the final hurdle. Some scenes are played so laconically that it is amazing the cast manage to get to the end of them. Not always taking Webster seriously is a good move, but when this extends to the cast not taking themselves seriously, they falter.
· Until October 26. Box office: 01382 223530.
