> Dido, Queen of carthage > Doctor Faustus > The MAssacre At Paris > edward II > the jew of malta > tamburlaine the great I & II > Complete POetry
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The Marlowe Society was founded in 1907. It is the third oldest drama society in Cambridge. It owes its founding principles to the wildly avant-garde undergraduate Justin Brooke; the idea of a society being founded specifically for the performance of plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries was to radically influence British theatre practice over the course of the twentieth century. Originally, The Marlowe Society’s aim was to move away from elaborate Victorian spectacle and the personality cults of actor-managers; to emphasise ensemble playing, the effective delivery of verse and integrity of texts, and bring back to the repertory underperformed plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries as well as less performed Shakespeare plays. The playwright had not been performed in Cambridge since 1886 when the undergraduate Hugh Wilson found himself “a sudden convert to the inexplicable merits” of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus . With the assistance of Brooke and an arrangement of theatrical academics they pursued the Vice Chancellor to give permission for its staging. His committee assembled, Brooke printed 50 copies of a flyer grandly headed ‘Marlowe Dramatic Society’, proclaiming that once a year, it was to perform “a play of the Elizabethan period in accordance with the tradition of the Elizabethan stage.” The proclamation of Faustus was continually postponed at the ADC Theatre but eventually met with success. Edward Dent’s journal describes this shift: “I soon became aware that a new spirit was making itself felt. The first notable result of it was the performance of Marlowe’s Faustus by a number of men who afterwards constituted the Marlowe Dramatic Society.” This year sees the 450th Anniversary of Marlowe’s birth, which we are celebrating with this festival of Marlowe’s complete works around Cambridge. The festival looks to be one of the most exciting events taking place in Cambridge this year, as each of Marlowe’s plays will be performed by students across the city in different venues in 12 months. This includes the more unlikely venues of Emmanuel Chapel, The Senate House, the Masters Lodges, and the classic student theatre venues of the ADC Theatre, Corpus Playroom and the Cambridge Arts Theatre. Join us to celebrate one of Cambridge’s best known alumni, Marlowe himself. 3
Dido, Queen of Carthage > Emmanuel Chapel Tue 12-Fri 15 nov 2013, 8pm > Senate House Sat 16 Nov 2013, 8pm Haste thee to the Court, where Dido will receive ye with her smiles... A storm is brewing. Queen Dido is hosting a banquet. Cupid has a mission. The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage breaks away from Marlowe’s beautifully lyrical plays - this is his raw and poigniant reimagining of Virgil’s Aeneid set in an unstable, war torn world, inhabited by jealous and scheming Gods. Centring around Dido’s madly fanatic love for Aeneas, come and see theatre in the round at its very best: in two historic venues that allow the audience to experience the world of Greek tragedy where the Gods “control proud fate, and cut the thread of time" in this intensely exciting story of love and desire. Do not miss out on this trimphant opening to the festival, as professional director Michael Oakley brings this play to life. By drawing parallels between the world of Dido and the world we live in today this piece explores the relevance of Marlowe’s writings to our own lives.
Doctor Faustus > Cambridge Arts Theatre Lent 2014, TBC Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And, melting, Heavens conspir’d his overthrow. Welcome to the world of the destructively intelligent Doctor Faustus, where hell is just a frame of mind. His soul now sold to Lucifer in exchange for twenty four years of pleasure, join Faustus on his travels to Europe, experience the tastes of the Pope’s Roman banquet, see the colours of the courts of Charles V in Germany and be bewildered by the enchantments and spells that restore Helen of Troy. But beware, “Fools that laugh on earth must weep in hell”. Don’t miss out this lavish production of Marlowe’s most famous play, led by a professional director.
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The Massacre at Paris > LENT 2014, TBC The great and the good have descended on Paris for the wedding of the Protestant Henry of Navarre, to the Catholic Margaret of Valois - a wedding that looks set to end the bloody religious wars that have plagued France. But behind the festivities lurks a dark secret: Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of the bride, has ruled the country with an iron fist, and cannot stomach the thought of it falling to the Protestants. She sets in motion a series of events that will see thousands put to death over in just a few weeks, and France plunged into one of the darkest chapters of its history. Marlowe’s shortest and most obscure play was also one of his most dangerous; when it first played in London, it helped fan fanatical anti-Catholic sentiment as people demanded retribution for what had happened in Paris. It is also one of the only known plays from this era to explicitly address a contemporary political event. Tantalisingly, Marlowe himself may even appear in the play; it features an unnamed ‘English Agent’ whom, given Marlowe’s suspected involvement with the Elizabethan secret service, many critics have identified as the playwright himself.
EDWARD II > Corpus Christi College EASTER 2014, TBC It’s 1307 and the King of England is dead; his young son is poised to assume the throne; and an exiled man seizes his chance to return home. Dark shadows have infected his court, but the freshly crowned Edward II only has eyes for his lover, Piers Gaveston. But in the world of courtly politics, the learning curve is steep; before Edward can learn how to rule like a king, he will be betrayed and abandoned by his friends, his wife and, ultimately, his country. To celebrate Marlowe’s connection with Corpus Christi College, this show will be a joint production between the Marlowe Society and Corpus’ Fletcher Players, staged in the historic grounds of Corpus itself – the grounds Marlowe would have looked down on every day from his college room.
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The Jew of Malta > ADC THEATRE Tue 30 SePT - SAT 4 OCT 2014, 7.45pm Now I will show myself To have more of the serpent than the dove. Barabas, a Jew, a merchant and by far the richest man in Malta, has been wronged. Left penniless by the island’s governor, he sets in motion a scheme to regain his riches and to topple his enemies – and soon finds himself caught in the middle of a war between the Christian Maltese and the Muslim Turks. Aided by his embittered slave and his beautiful daughter, he sets about playing both sides, all the while sinking deeper and deeper into his own villainy. In many ways a prototype for Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice , this play nonetheless features Marlowe’s inimitable mixture of the mundane and the melodramatic. Moreover, it has an unmatched satiric edge to it, as Marlowe pulls no punches in exposing what he saw as the hypocrisy of organised religion in all its forms.
Tamburlaine the great i & II > Michaelmas 2014, tbc Come, let us march against the power of heaven, And set black streamers in the firmament, To signify the slaughter of the gods. Over the course of two plays, Tamburlaine rises from being a lowly shepherd to forging one of the largest empires the world has ever known. But his meteoric rise comes with a cost; as he carves a bloody swathe across two continents, his war-lust grows to the point where even his own family must learn to fear him. Women, children, and even his own son all meet their end at his hand. Ultimately, with no earthly kingdoms left to conquer, Tamburlaine takes up arms against God himself, daring Him to end his reign. A stunning portrait of a brilliant yet savage man, Tamburlaine the Great asks one simple question: at what price, greatness. Like so many of Marlowe’s plays, Tamburlaine is first and foremost about ambition, but it also had a profound influence on Marlowe’s contemporaries: the themes of these plays would resonate for centuries.
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Air & Fire: Marlowe’s poetry His raptures were All Air, and Fire, which made his verses clear, For that fine madness still he did retain Which rightly should possess a Poet’s brain. [MICHAEL DRAYTON] Marlowe’s plays hit the London stage like a thunderbolt, but his poems were equally original and equally radical. In 1599 the Bishop of London publically burned Marlowe’s translations of Ovid’s love poems - the first translations of Ovid’s erotic verse into any modern European language. The rhyming heroic couplet that Marlowe pioneered in his translation became a standard form. Even more influential is his free-wheeling version of the late Greek poem, Hero and Leander. Everyone knows some of this, even if unaware that he’s the author, for he’s a poet who sticks in the mind. Years after Marlowe had been murdered, Shakespeare has one of his characters quote him:
Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight? Why “shepherd”? Because Marlowe wrote the most famous Elizabethan song of all, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (and there were many cover versions):
Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove. This year, sample the risky pleasures of Marlowe’s verse. The Masters of four Colleges have generously offered their Lodges as venues for staging a dialogue - or even contest - between Marlowe and their own poets. > > > >
Pembroke - where we pit Marlowe against Spenser Christ’s - where he does battle with Milton St John’s - where he spars with Nashe and Donne Corpus Christi - where he read and translated Ovid
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FESTIVAL cONCEIVE D BY E DWARD EUSTACE produce d by lily staff w w w.marlowefestival.co.uk
The Marlowe Society 2013-14 Chair: Tim Cribb President: Fergus Blair Junior Treasurer: Henry Jenkinson Secretary: Hellie Cranney Membership Secretary: Andrew Room Education Officer: Martha Bennett Daisy Bard, Emily Burns, Tara Coverdale, Ellen Robertson, Lily Staff, Hugh Stubbins Special thanks to: Michael Oakley, the ADC Theatre Management Team, the Staff of the Senate House and Emmanuel College Chapel, and the Masters of Christ’s, Corpus Christi, St. John’s and Pembroke Colleges. Cover by Ella Jackson / Design by Emily Newton