About the work
John Ford wrote this five-act tragedy for the theatre company Queen Henrietta's Men; it was staged at the Phoenix theatre in London probably between 1629 and 1633 and was first printed in 1633.
Plot
The play centres on the forbidden love between the siblings Giovanni and Annabella in Parma. When Annabella becomes pregnant, she hastily marries her suitor Soranzo to conceal the affair. Once the secret comes out, Giovanni kills his sister and then Soranzo, before being killed himself by Soranzo's henchmen.
Cultural significance
Its frank treatment of incest made the play one of the most controversial works of English drama; it entered the regular repertoire only in the twentieth century. German translations include versions by Erich Fried and by Christa and B. K. Tragelehn, staged among others at Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater in a widely noted production directed by Katharina Thalbach.