Women Beware Women

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Jason Compton

Cast members during a rehearsal for 'Women Beware Women.'

Cast members during a rehearsal for 'Women Beware Women,' Madison Shakespeare Company, 2025.

One of the bloodiest and most violent of the Jacobean tragedies, Women Beware Women, was penned by Thomas Middleton, a contemporary of Shakespeare. Bianca elopes with the insecure Leantio, which is only the beginning of an exploration of sexual jealousy, women’s agency, and male lust for power. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, but a whole lot darker. Madison Shakespeare Company performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2 p.m. Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 6-7, and 5 p.m. Nov. 8.

7:30 pm on 10/31-11/1 & 11/6-7, 2 pm on 11/2 and 5 pm,, 11/8, Bartell Theatre. $20.

media release: Madison Shakespeare Company today announced the full details of the kickoff of its second season as a Resident Company of the Bartell Theatre: a full-cast production of Women Beware Women, written by Thomas Middleton. Middleton was the shining light of the rising generation of playwrights who followed Shakespeare on London stages. His racy revenge classic stands out as shockingly modern even before being transported to post-World War II Italy, where this production is set.

The young and beautiful Bianca shocks her wealthy Venetian family by running away and eloping with Leantio, a Florentine salesman of modest means. But Bianca is quickly frustrated by the drudgery and routine of life in a small house shared with her husband’s mother. When the Duke of Florence makes Bianca a proposition she cannot refuse, she finds herself drawn into court intrigue and becomes the Duke’s kept woman.

Meanwhile, the noble Hippolito and the vibrant Isabella have secretly reached the same conclusion: there is no one in the world they love more than the other. There are just two problems. The first is that Isabella is arranged to be wed to the rich but childish and fatuous Ward of a prominent courtier. The second is that Isabella is Hippolito’s blood niece.

Overseeing all these desires is the Lady Livia, a twice-widowed woman of great wealth and influence. How can the Duke, Leantio, Hippolito, Isabella, and Livia all get what they want and live happily ever after? Leave the resolution in her capable, crafty, and perfectly persuasive hands. 

What follows is a cycle of passion, betrayal, and revenge powered by arrows, poison, and gold. The production opens Halloween night, October 31 at Madison’s Bartell Theatre, just off the Capitol Square. Tickets are available now through the Bartell Theatre box office.

The production features the talent of MSC veterans Rebecca Raether (Livia), Travis Bedard (Hippolito), Brian R. Johnson (Guardiano), and Emma Hinker (Marta), along with newcomers Danielle Bormann Davidson (Isabella), Giovanna Iosso (Bianca), Willy Jewer (Leantio), and Mary Fisher (Lord Cardinal), with Anders Burck, Evelyn Gildrie-Voyles, Nora Schultz, Peter Olson, and Samuel Aizenstein. Women Beware Women is produced and directed by Jason Compton for Madison Shakespeare Company based on a script by Compton and Amber de Petro.

In addition to writing dozens of plays produced for English audiences, Middleton was a key contributor to surviving Shakespeare texts including Macbeth and Measure For Measure.

Madison Shakespeare Company has produced engaging and accessible classic theater in south-central Wisconsin since 2012.