The main plot of The Changeling concerns Beatrice-Joanna, daughter of the governor of Alicante in Spain.
She is betrothed to Alonzo de Piracquo, but has fallen in love with Alsemero. She arranges for De Flores, a poor
and ugly gentleman in her father’s household, to murder Alonzo so that she can marry Alsemero. Too late she discovers
that De Flores’ price for the murder is that she shall become his mistress. The rest of the play reveals her
growing dependence on De Flores, and the final revelation about her adultery leads to her death and that of De Flores.
The parallel sub-plot is set in a madhouse, where Isabella, the keeper’s wife, unlike Beatrice-Joanna, resists
temptation and blackmail.
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The set for this production was a large, metallic-looking cage, echoing the madhouse of the sub-plot and the metaphorical
cages in which so many of the characters find themselves. The chorus of mad folk was often seen behind the bars, watching
the events of the main plot, and a reminder of the horror and madness set in motion by the apparently sane characters.
The aristocratic characters of the main plot were dressed in seventeenth-century costume, but the colours were confined
to black, white, grey and silver until the final revelation of Beatrice-Joanna’s relationship with De Flores, when they
both appeared in scarlet. The madhouse characters were mainly dressed in ragged browns and muddy beiges to reflect their
inferior social status.
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