Eve Best, the star of the Old Vic’s production of The Duchess of Malfi, has broken a bed through overuse.

By Tim Walker 04 April 2012 • 7:28am

Eve Best, left, pictured with her Duchess of Malfi co-star Harry Lloyd and the show’s director Jamie Lloyd CREDIT: Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

The bed in The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic is weakening. Eve Best, in the title tole, is ravished nightly upon it (twice on matinée days) by both her brother and her husband. On Monday night, it finally gave way with a deafening twang.

Best grinned at the audience, and Harry Lloyd, as her brother, did what he could to have his unnatural way with her as the mattress drooped.

In a useful spot of product placement, Lloyd later said: “I have this night digg’d up a mandrake. And I am grown mad with ‘t.”