the play's performances and reception in Middleton's time; Nathaniel Richards, who wrote a preface to the 1653 edition, stated that he had seen it, but no other records of performance survive. According to the Database of Early English Playbooks, the King's Men was the first company to put on the production. For modern critics, Women Beware Women has regularly been paired with The Changeling as constituting Middleton's two noteworthy late achievements in the genre of tragedy—though Women Beware Women has usually been judged the lesser of the two works. The bloody masque that concludes the play has been called a "ridiculous holocaust". With growing critical attention over the years, however, the estimation of Women Beware Women has intensified; the play is now judged to be among Middleton's greatest works. "Women Beware Women displays Middleton's maturest understanding of the relation of power to desire, and of political culture to civil society." Revivals The play was never revived in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, but productions became relatively common after the 1950s. The most recent major production was at the Olivier stage of the Royal National Theatre, London; it was directed by Marianne Elliott and starred Harriet Walter as Livia and Vanessa Kirby as Isabella. This production was met with very favourable reviews. Adaptations The play was adapted for television for an episode of Granada Television's Play of the Week in 1965. The production was directed by Gordon Flemyng and starred Gene Anderson as Livia, Godfrey Quigley as Guardino, Michael Barrington as Fabricio, Karin Fernald as Isabella, Laurence Payne as Hippolito, Diana Rigg as Bianca, and William Gaunt as Leantio. A modern adaptation by Howard Barker at the Royal Court Theatre in 1986, in which the first two-thirds of Middleton's play were preserved but the ending was entirely revamped; among other changes, Sordido rapes Bianca before her wedding. Barker stated that he was rejecting Middleton's Jacobean Puritanism, writing in his programme note that "Middleton says lust leads to the grave. I say desire alters perception ... Middleton knew the body was the source of politics. He did not know it was also the source of hope." A radio adaptation was broadcast on 30 March 2003 on BBC Radio 3 starring Beth Chalmers as Bianca, John McAndrew as Leantio, Bill Wallis as Guardiano and Sara McGayghe as Isabella. A musical adaptation was workshopped with student on the University of Chichester Musical Theatre Triple