A tale of hidden sexual desires, bloody deeds, and characters who realize their intentions are less than pure, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling is one of the darkest and most sensual of the 17th century English tragedies.

The beautiful Beatrice falls hard for Alsemero, who shares her feelings, but Beatrice’s marriage to Alonzo de Piracquo, approved by her father Vermandero, is planned. Being a Jacobean tragedy, the solution turns to murder. Despite being repelled by his disfigured face, Beatrice enlists her father’s servant De Flores to do the deed, little realizing that he lusts after her and will refuse money, preferring, and eventually insisting upon, payment of another kind.