One of the most influential plays of its time, Elizabethan box office smash The Spanish Tragedy is credited with inventing the revenge tragedy genre and influenced a generation of writers including Thomas Kyd’s one-time room-mate Marlowe, Jonson, and of course Shakespeare, for whom the wronged ghost, procrastinating avenger and play-within-a-play suggested a model for Hamlet.

The Arcola’s cast of 13 play 20 roles in a production which takes the piece out of the 16th century and sets it in a world of knife crime.