Hope is infused in a Jacobean tragedy in School of Drama’s next production

A Jacobean tragedy with a new perspective will be the next theatrical offering at Yale School of Drama.

“Women Beware Women” is Howard Barker’s radical re-envisioning of Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean tragedy. In this version, a newlywed couple attempts to protect its young marriage against a world obsessed with money, beauty, pageantry, and power. In this play, sex and the human body become sources of hope — instruments of freedom to use against those who commodify passion and love.

“Women Beware Women” will be performed at the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St. at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23-Friday, Jan. 29. There will be no performance on Sunday, Jan. 24.

The show is directed by Leora Morris, a third-year M.F.A. candidate at the School of Drama, whose Yale productions include Shakespeare’s “The Troublesome Reign of King John” and “Riverbank: A Noh Play for Northerly Americans” by Brendan Pelsue, as well as an original devised work, “love holds a lamp in this little room” for Yale Summer Cabaret; an original musical, “White Oleander,” for the Yale Drama Coalition; and “He Left Quietly” by Yaël Farber, for Yale Cabaret.

Morris, who is from Toronto, Canada, was artistic director of her own Toronto-based company, Theatre Hetaerae, for which she directed “He Left Quietly,” which was named SummerWorks Best Production in 2014; “Horse,” which won the 2011 Toronto Fringe Awards for Best Direction, Production, and Ensemble; “Engaged” at the Rhubarb Festival; “The Mistress Project” at Theatre Passe Muraille; and “Grannie Didn’t Go to Florida” at the Cooking Fire Festival. She has worked as a dramaturg and director for new theater and dance works across Canada, serving as associate dramaturg for the 2013 Banff Playwrights Colony and as apprentice in new play development at Tarragon Theatre. As an associate artists with Small Wooden Shoe, Morris co-curated and directed the “Reading Difficult Plays and Singing Simple Songs” series, and she was associate director of productions of Brecht’s “Galileo” and Evan Webber’s “Antigone Dead People,” which recently toured Japan. In 2012 she was honored with Toronto’s Ken MacDougall Award for Emerging Directors. She is serving this year as co-artistic director of the Yale Cabaret’s 48th season.

The cast for “Women Beware Women” includes Baize Buzan, Juliana Canfield, Jenelle Chu, Paul Stillman Cooper, Brontë England-Nelson, Dylan Frederick, Annie Hägg, Rebecca Hampe, Sean Patrick Higgins, Galen Kane, Steven Koernig, Niall Powderly, Bradley James Tejeda, Katie Travers, and Shaunette Renée Wilson.

The production features scenic design by Claire DeLiso, costume design by Alexae Visel, lighting design by Carolina Ortiz Herrera, sound design by Kate Marvin, projection design by Yana Biryukova, dramaturgy by Nahuel Telleria, and stage management by Rebekah Heusel.

The show contains sexual situations, nudity, and violence.

Tickets are $15-$25 and are available online at drama.yale.edu, by phone at 203-432-1234, and in person at the box office, 1120 Chapel St. (at York Street).