PICTURE the scene: a deadly pandemic is sweeping the land, causing debilitating sickness, record numbers of deaths and mass panic – and no one knows how to cure it, how to avoid it, or even how it’s being spread.
No, we’re not talking about Covid in 2020 – this is 1348, and the bubonic plague is rife in fair Florence, the setting for Netflix’s new dark comedy The Decameron: the Tuscan city is being ravaged by the Black Death, a pestilence which would become known as one of the most fatal pandemics in human history, and from which around half of Europe’s population would perish.
But, for the rich and glamorous nobles of the city, none of that really matters, since they can sack off city life for the Italian countryside, running away from the hacking coughs and unsightly buboes of the infected to a lavish villa with their servants.
Locked away to wait out the plague, however, social rules soon begin to wear thin, and the self-isolation transcends into a wine-soaked sex romp. But it’s not all raunchy fun and games when the luxurious retreat becomes a scramble for survival, showing how during times of crisis the rift between the haves and have-nots grows wider.
Loosely inspired by the 14th century story collection of the same name, The Decameron is a farcical story of feral characters let loose in an Italian villa – but its also a story about human relationships and class disparity.
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Creator and showrunner Kathleen Jordan explains that she wanted to find “a specific reaction to the idea of impending doom” for each of her 10 main characters.
“I think Sirisco’s is desperation, Dioneo’s is hedonism, Licisca’s is kind of like psychopathic adaptability, Pampinea’s is complete denial,” she says, referring to characters played by Arrested Development star Tony Hale, Willow’s Amar Chadha-Patel, Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds, and Girls’ Zosia Mamet, respectively.
“Everyone has this sort of mode that they’re operating in.
“And that was, I think, inspired by the ways that we would look around during Covid and go like: ‘Oh, that’s really interesting that, that’s how you’re responding to this. I’m scrubbing down my groceries, like, what are you doing?’”
At the heart of the story is the duo of Pampinea, played by Zosia Mamet, and her servant Misia, played by Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson. They are perfectly partnered in that Pampinea is obsessed with her high station, and Misia wants nothing more than to please her master.
“I think it all means quite a lot to her, I think she’s always trying her best at all times – I think desperation lends itself so well to comedy,” says Jackson of Misia.
“It’s something I’ve sort of explored before with other characters, but this felt like completely new territory. And I feel like weaving the two of them together – the dramatic side of it and the comedic side of it – was just made so much easier when your scene partner, the other half of this two-hander, is Zosia.”
While Misia is unwaveringly dedicated to her boss, as things begin to go awry and Pampinea – who is betrothed to the missing master of the villa they’ve all retreated to – becomes unhinged, the servant must choose whether to go down with her master’s ship or strike out on her own.
“I think any time you get to play a character that is that extreme, it’s really quite enjoyable,” says Mamet of Pampinea.
“A lot of the time, given the circumstance with the social construct, you kind of have to keep a lid on things, and there is a wonderful challenge in that, in and of itself.
“But I think it’s not often that you get to play a character that is just acting on all of their most base instincts, because no one has ever told them no. So that was quite fun, and very freeing at times.”
The villa’s master, Leonardo, should have been the one welcoming his motley crew of guests – and his bride-to-be, complete with her generous dowry – to his pestilence-free safehouse, but he is nowhere to be found upon their arrival.
It’s no matter, though, as steward of the villa Sirisco, played by Tony Hale, is on hand to look after the esteemed visitors. Except, as eager to please as he is, Sirisco is burdened with a big secret, one which could be his undoing as he clumsily tries to appease all of his demanding noble guests.
“I think that’s what is the fun of it – it was so out there,” he says of the outlandish production.
“To live in that realm, to be around the artistry of Italy, all the department heads, you know, costume, hair and make-up, the production design is insane. So you’re kind of just like, all of a sudden, given this fantastic playground to be in.
“It really was just kind of a banquet of a lot of opportunities, which was fun to dive into.”
“It sort of felt like, brazenly camp, and fun, and feral, is really how it felt,” agrees Jackson.
“And they really gave that landscape of the wildness and the possibility of anything happening. It was amazing.”
Mamet notes that the comedy in The Decameron leans into farce, which enables the darkly funny show to “make comments about things that we’re going through in our current day and age, maybe in a slightly more intense way than if you were to just like, hit the nail on the head.
“I feel like Kathleen did a really incredible job of creating a story that, sadly, feels actually quite relevant about what we’ve all just gone through and what we’re currently going through, but setting it in this like very zany, very beautiful, very camp, very feral world of The Decameron, and the 1340s in a villa outside of Florence.”
