While you might think you know the Duchess Of Malfi you've probably never seen it done like this before.

Brighton-based Prodigal Theatre have loosely taken Webster's 17th Century tale of love, greed, revenge and treachery and thrust it into the seedy underworld of a Fifties seaside town.

Ten Thousand Several Doors is Jacobean tragedy meets Brighton Rock. The action is shifted from Renaissance Italy to the darkly-lit backrooms of a Brighton pub and wily court officials become sharp-suited heavies from a gangster dynasty.

Director Jane Collins says while they have stripped Webster's classic back, the main plot remains the same.

"While this isn't the Duchess Of Malfi as people know it, it is based around it - the intent is the same," she says. "It's about jealousy, revenge, obsession, it's about the dark side of the human soul.

"There is a very clear relationship between the dark side of Jacobean tragedy and film noir like Brighton Rock. That and the fact the setting, The Nightingale, had its heyday in the Fifties combined to make us re-look at the story."

In Webster's original the widowed Duchess marries beneath herself, much to her brothers' disapproval, and the story ends in a nightmarish tragedy as her two siblings exact their revenge.

While this centuries-old plot sounds like it could easily be a storyline from Eastenders, Jane is loath to compare the Duchess to a 21st Century contemporary.

"It's very difficult thing to do," she says. "There a lot of women who are sacrificed for male egos or obsessions, but I wouldn't like to name an individual - because in a way it reduces her.

"It's the notion of what some men do to women. It's the misogyny that still permeates cultures, but the play is not a feminist tract. That's what's exciting about it, the twists and turns which are scary, tragic and beautiful by degrees."

In the adventurous spirit of Jacobean theatre, the action of Ten Thousand Several Doors is played out in The Nightingale Theatre and the surrounding streets in a "feat of organisation", according to Jane. The narrative kept going by "various tricks and devices" which she refuses to reveal.

"We can't say how it's done but the effect is very filmic. I think audiences enjoy the fact they get to participate and become very involved with the action, it's an exciting way of experiencing a performance."

In the same way Baz Luhrmann's film version of Romeo and Juliet turned Shakespeare - eye-rolling teenagers knew it - on to a new audience, so does Ten Thousand Several Doors.

"This isn't quite theatre as many people know it, and let's just say they will be very surprised.

"In the same way as film often does, we play with the audience all the time, setting up one explanation and then breaking it down, setting up one layer of reality and breaking it."

Starts 7pm and 10pm, tickets cost £12 (sold out). Call 01273 709709.