The Globe theatre's new Jacobean playhouse will open with an inaugural performance of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, starring Gemma Arterton. 

Directed by Dominic Dromgoole, the production has been specially created for the flickering candlelight and intimate atmosphere of the new indoor space.

Mixing chilling cruelty, pitch-black comedy and moments of heart-breaking poignancy, this grisly Jacobean drama horrifies and moves in equal measure as it hurtles towards its bloody conclusion.

Gemma Arterton made her professional stage debut at the Globe in 2007, fresh from RADA, when she won huge critical acclaim as Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost. She returns to play Webster’s young Duchess, doomed to destruction at the hands of her sadistic brothers.

Shakespeare’s Globe is in the final stages of fundraising to complete the new indoor Jacobean theatre, opening in 2014 with The Duchess of Malfi, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, L’Ormindo and The Malcontent.