EDWARD II: Christopher Marlowe
Edward II: Christopher Marlowe
Shakespeare's Globe: Tkts 020 7401 9919
Runs: 3hrs 20 mins: two intervals: in repertory till 26th September
Review: Kim Durham 1st August
A solid, workmanlike production with meticulous period research. A play that has in its first act the Church getting itself into political hot water over a homosexual relationship must have some claim to contemporaneity. Even in this Globe production that strives for period authenticity, the early scenes of Edward II, highlighting the clash between private passion and public role, have a striking immediacy.
Liam Brennan's Edward is a man whose personal emotional needs wholly overwhelm his public persona. In some of this production's most successful scenes, we see the disastrous effects of this confusion between public and private as intense Royal intimacies are willfully exposed to a scandalized wider audience. So not much change there then.
Marlowe sets out his dramatic stall early as the King clashes with the feudal barons in promoting his favourite, Gaveston over them. Interestingly, as a sexually ambivalent cobbler's son, Marlowe identifies the barons' anger as more directed against Gaveston's lack of class than concerns over his overt sexuality. It's the bishops that worry about that.
There are cracking scenes at the end as well. Brennan is at his best as the defeated Edward, throwing tantrums at the prospect of giving up the crown, while John McEnery makes a splendidly clinical assassin. Richard Glaves, effective in a number of roles, as the young Edward III, turns the tables on his Protector, in the play's final dramatic display of the politics of power.
As in Doctor Faustus, Marlowe is great on beginnings and endings, but doesn't know quite what to do with middles. Here, in a long evening, there is a great deal of historical chronicling, which despite a good running gag about the number of supporters Edward rewards with titles to various bits of England, becomes rather wearing.
This may also have something to do with the production and its meticulous attention to period authenticity. Such research is a fascinating and essential aspect of the Globe's purpose, but sometimes appears to hamper other aspects of investigation. At times, both direction and some performances seem to lack exploration, offering bombastic roaring and grandiloquent but empty gesturing in place of real investigation.
Edward II: Liam Brennan
Gaveston: Gerald Kyd
Queen Isabella: Chu Omambala
Canterbury/ Lightborne: John McEnery
Lady Margaret/ Prince Edward: Richard Glaves
Mortimer: Justin Shevlin
Lancaster/ Rice Ap Howell: Patrick Brennan
Sir John of Hainault/ Winchester: Bill Stewart
Edmund: Patrick Toomey
Warwick/ Gurney: Albie Woodington
Coventry/ BaldockBerkeley: William Osborne
Pembroke/ Leicester: Terry McGinity
James/ Levune/ Abbott of Neath: Peter Shorey
Spencer: Michael Brown
Arundel: Justin Avoth
Director: Timothy Walker
Musical Director: Keith McGowan
Costume: Imogen Ross
Costume/ Props/ Hangings: Jenny Tiramani
2003-08-02 10:01:16