John Ford’s Sparta-set revenge tragedy The Broken Heart plays in the atmospheric Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

In ancient Sparta a wedge is forced between lovers Penthea and Orgilus. That wedge, delivered by Penthea’s brother, is a jealous, brutal old man whom Penthea is forced to marry.

Far from accepting of his fate, Orgilus disguises himself as a poverty-stricken scholar and bides his time before unleashing a shocking cycle of revenge.

Ford brings a distinctly modern feeling for psychology to his tale of a love oppressed in a world dominated by selfishness, jealousy and politics.