- November 2014
"I feel like everything I do is a performance for lapel mics and security cameras. Like there’s something in me which is the only real thing in the world and someone is trying to bleed it from me." A soldier comes home. A journalist loses his mind. An advertising firm markets a war. An adaptation of Aeschylus' Oresteia for a century of humanitarian intervention and marketised warfare, war war brand war interrogates family, war and tragedy in the internet age. As changed technologies and identical hubris lead nations into deadly wars with all of the relentlessness of the ticker tape that scrolls across the bottom of news channels and stock exchanges alike, one family's imbalance of power brings violence to an international arena.
Thom May has written for the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Court Studio Group. "war war brand war" is the winner of the 2014 RSC Other Prize.
"Intelligent, urgent and formally playful ... the play demonstrates the emergence of a clear and confident dramatic voice" - Pippa Hill, RSC
- November 2014
'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 Tamburlaine Parts 1 and 2, the eponymous 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?
After making a name for himself with Dido, Queen of Carthage, Marlowe followed it up with the epic Tamburlaine the Great. The play was so successful that it prompted him to pen a sequel, which was met with similar critical acclaim; together, these two plays were the only ones published during his lifetime.
The Marlowe Society presents the final instalment of The Marlowe Festival, in the unique surroundings of the Michaelhouse Chancel.
- June 2014
'As for myself, I walk abroad o' nights, And kill sick people groaning under walls: Sometimes I go about and poison wells; And now and then, to cherish Christian thieves, I am content to lose some of my crowns, That I may, walking in my gallery, See 'em go pinion'd along by my door.' (II.iii.177-84)
So gloats Barabas, the vengeful protagonist of Christopher Marlowe's most controversial and groundbreaking play. Set just off the coast of Italy, on the island of Malta, 'The Jew of Malta' tells of the exploits of Barabas and his pursuit to protect his most cherished riches from the Maltese people that will deal in blood and murder to wrench free his precious gold. Rife with prejudice, excess and sheer barbarity, this precursor to 'The Merchant of Venice' is Elizabethan theatre at its most Machiavellian.
This rare production of 'The Jew of Malta' is part of the Marlowe Society's year-long festival of works, celebrating the 450th anniversary of Christopher Marlowe's birth. The play itself will take place in Corpus Christi College Gardens, where Marlowe's old room can be seen overlooking the gardens!
- March 2014
Fourteen of Cambridge's finest actors perform a showcase of monologues and duologues in front of members of the professional industry.
- February 2014
'Let none escape, murder the Huguenots.
Kill them, kill them.'
Paris is on edge. France is at war with itself as Protestant and Catholic vie for control. The King of France decides that it is time to remove the 'threat' once and for all while his loyal advisor, the Duke of Guise maintains his own pursuit of power. And so begins one of the bloodiest massacres of French history.
As part of the 450th Anniversary, this short play of Marlowe's about the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre is set to shock in exploring this brutal event instigated by brutal people in a modern day context.
No one is safe.
- January–February 2014
“What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemned to die?”
The Marlowe Society return to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Christopher Marlowe’s birth with a lavish new staging of the playwright’s most famous work: Doctor Faustus.
Faustus is a brilliant academic whose destructive thirst for knowledge leads him down a path to damnation when he sells his soul to Lucifer. From the splendour of Emperor Charles V’s court to the excesses of the Pope’s banquet in Rome, Faustus experiences all the earthly delights on offer in this world and beyond with the magical powers granted by his devilish companion, Mephistopheles. But his time is fast running out….
This production forms the centrepiece of a year-long festival of works celebrating the 450th anniversary of Marlowe’s birth. One of Cambridge’s most famous alumni, his enduringly popular tale of ambition and damnation will be performed by the cream of the University’s acting talent, led by a professional creative team.
- November 2013
The Other Prize has long been recognised as a primary vehicle for uncovering exceptional student writing in Cambridge. This year's winner, Occupied, follows a group of students' attempts to challenge the “theatrical establishment” and occupy the Corpus Playroom. Inspired by the controversial Lady Mitchell Hall Occupation in 2011 it takes a humorous (though hopefully optimistic) look at the trials and tribulations of student activism.
- November 2013
"Haste thee to the Court, where Dido will receive ye with her smiles"
Far from being a straight translation of Virgil's Aeneid, The tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage differs from the beautifully lyrical plays we expect from Marlowe. Instead the raw and poignant language echoes the plays instable setting of a war torn world inhabited by jealous and scheming Gods. Scattered with deception and consumed with jealousy the play centres around Dido’s madly fanatic love for Aeneas. These intimate venues allow the audience to truly experience a 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. "fortune's mean, too mean to be companion to a queen"
Do not miss out on the most exciting event of the festival, professional director Michael Oakley brings this play to life, by drawing examples 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.
- October 2013
Everyone knows Kit Marlowe’s plays hit the London stage like a thunderbolt. Not so many know that his poems were equally original, equally radical. Too radical for some: in 1599 the Bishop of London burned Marlowe’s translations of Ovid’s love poems in public. Even today, the explicit linkage between poetic technique and sexual performance can surprise. These were the first translations of Ovid’s erotic verse into any modern European language, and bishops burned them in vain: the rhymed heroic couplet that Marlowe pioneered for his translation became a standard form.
His translation of Lucan likewise established blank verse as a mainline medium – which of course crossed over into the theatre. This translation too was subversive, for Lucan was the anti-imperial poet of ancient Rome and Marlowe chose to translate him when European absolutism was on the rise, a republican poem in a monarchical age.
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 pop 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 term and next we bring you some special opportunities to sample the risky pleasures of Marlowe’s verse. The Master’s of four Colleges have generously offered their Lodges as venues for staging a dialogue (or even contest) between Marlowe and their own poets. They are:
Pembroke, where we pit Marlowe against Spenser Christ’s, where he does battle with Milton St John’s, where he converses with his friend and fellow student, Nashe (and also with the equally radical Donne) and of course his own College: Corpus Christi – that’s where he read Ovid and Lucan, and made them heard for the first time in English.
- June 2013
Join the Marlowe Society as performers take their favourite pre first world war and Bloomsbury poems to the historic tea gardens in May Week.
"The Orchard - a corner of England where time stands still as the outside world rushes by."
Anyone is welcome to come and perform a poem of their choice from the era, simply email Ed on ee263@cam.ac.uk
- March 2013
- February 2013
The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities occur.
The Marlowe Society is pleased to announce that this year's Arts show will be directed by Michael Fentiman. Michael trained as an actor at Bretton Hall and later as a Director at Mountview Academy. He has worked both nationally and internationally, with seasons running on Broadway and the West End. He was previously Associate Director at the Playhouse Theatre, Harlow where credits include professional productions of ’Romeo and Juliet’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and several pantomimes. He is currently Artistic Director of Beggars and Kings Theatre Company.
Michael’s current work in development is the RSC’s ‘Titus Andronicus’ at the Swan Theatre. His most recent work includes co-directing ThreeSixty Entertainment’s’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ with Rupert Goold (to whom he was assistant director for two seasons at the RSC, as well as to Michael Boyd) and various RSC productions.
- November 2012
Spain. 1592. Don Andrea has been murdered in the war with Portugal, and his ghost stalks the Spanish court demanding bloody retribution.
“I'll turn their friendship into fell despite | Their love to mortal hate, their day to night.”
The fighting may be over and Spain victorious, but the bloodshed has not abated. Underneath the music and short-lived revelry, the drums beat to the time of a funeral march.
“The heav'ns are just; murder cannot be hid.”
Yet justice comes at a price and vengeance brings its own victims: among the trees the hanged man lies bleeding and a father’s anguished cry echoes up to the stars ...
“ I'll go marshal up the fiends in hell | To be avenged on you all for this.”
The Gothic surroundings of King’s Chapel are the setting for this reimagining of Thomas Kyd’s catalogue of murder and misdeeds; this November, as the days darken and the nights grow colder, witness the bloody consequences of violence in this, the original English Revenge tragedy.
- November 2012
'Kind' is the winner of the 2012 John Kinsella/Tracy Ryan 'Other' Prize.
'What’s he called? 'Who?' 'The pirate, the one like a door with wings?' 'The Great Skua. Or to give him his full patronymic - Stercorarius Skua.' 'And no one stands up to him?' 'He’s got no natural predators, no.' 'What can the other birds do to stop him?' 'Not much. Feed in big groups; stay near their young. Keep their heads down and hope he picks on someone else.'
Developed with the support of the Royal Shakespeare Company Literary Department.
Professionally directed by Isobel Cohen, 'Kind' will be an ambitious production involving physical theatre, innovative staging and puppetry.
- October–November 2012
The two greatest casinos in Las Vegas are at war. Agamemnon, jailed for ten years on charges of tax evasion, is about to end the feud with a devastating blow: the walls of Troy will fall. But when the dust settles and the king comes home, his triumphal return feels wrong. Clytemnestra is obsessed with a videotape, Elektra lives in virtual reality, and Orestes hasn't been seen in years. Under the brightest lights of the Strip a sickening crime, a bloodline's collapse and the rise of avengers mortal and divine will bring the House of Atreus to its knees.
In a new adaptation, Aeschylus' trilogy is updated and radically represented. Through innovative use of audio and video media this show takes a new approach to the spectacular nature of tragedy. Revenge has never looked so good.
- October 2012
A day at the fair? Well golly-gosh, what possible reason could there be not to?
Oh my poor, naïve companions! Little do you know what awaits you there, for there is no fair like Bartholomew Fair…
John Littlewit and his motley crew of guls and fools are ready to run riot. Plotting to win the hand of Dame Purecraft, they embark on a course of mayhem that will know no bounds. Justice Overdo is determined to stop them, but who will prevail in this carnival of chaos and disguise?
Ben Jonson's timeless sitcom is utterly reinvigorated in this hilarious, rip-roaring production. Directed by the president of the Cambridge Footlights, and filled to the brim with farce, laughs, music, dance, mistaken identities and puerile puns, once you've arrived you'll never want to leave.
'Tis in fashion to go to the Fair', but who knows what one may encounter...
- June 2012
A new play by Judith E Wilson Fellow John Kinsella. Combining physical theatre, dance, mask-work and ambient music, this is one of Cambridge's more experimental forays into drama, as particle physics, Italian comedy and the unique architecture of Churchill Chapel crash into one another in an explosion of poetry.
- June 2012
Change is coming to the quiet village of Grantchester: bulldozers, drug dealers and, worst of all, students. Inspired by Medieval Mummers plays, these short plays by award winning playwright and poet John Kinsella blend the traditional and the contemporary, viewing modern life through the lens of traditional folk-tales.
- March 2012
The world-famous Marlowe Society ('a powerhouse of theatrical expertise' - Sir Ian McKellen) presents this year's Cambridge University Graduate Showcase.
Performed to industry professionals, casting directors and agents, and led by former Royal Court Artistic Director, Max Stafford-Clark, this year is set to see the best show yet. Featuring some of Cambridge University's best theatrical talent, The Marlowe Showcase 2012 will be performed at the Actors' Church, Covent Garden, in London's West End.
- February 2012
‘My heart/ Is true as steel’
What happens when you give it all up for love?
As darkness falls, young runaways find themselves at the edge of the city. Here, nature is off-balance. Trees and scaffolding fight for space, and love-sickness rules. Shadows start to move, flowers hold strange power, and everything is turned upside down by a lost boy. In this haunted wasteland he controls the scene. The result: mayhem. The madness of a dream plays itself out, wonderful and odd. A bold chorus of tricksters, half-man half-animal, roams the stage. Lovers come to blows. The beautiful red-haired woman all but loses her mind in pursuit of an ass. While the builders just desperately want to keep the show on the road in the countdown to the big royal wedding…
Blending movement, mask-work and new music with Shakespeare’s original text, Kate Sagovsky (RSC Season 2011) directs an uproarious production of Shakespeare’s best-loved play for Cambridge University’s renowned Marlowe Society.
- November 2011
London, 1843. Marley has lain dead for seven years, mouldering in his grave and burning in the netherworld beyond. Old Scrooge sits festering in his counting-house, accumulating his money by the light of a single coal. At the stroke of twelve, Scrooge and Marley go head to head, hurtling across time and space as they battle it out for redemption... There has never been a telling of 'A Christmas Carol' quite like this.
Join two of Cambridge's most eccentric character actors as they give life to a sprawling ensemble of Dickensian grotesques. From undertakers to charwomen, petty thieves to vulpine orphans, kindly philanthropists to the spectre of Death himself - here is Dickens's supreme masterpiece in all of its rollicking carnival glory. At once a terrifying ghost story, a delightful comedy and a triumphant reminder of man's power to change, this enchanting modern fairytale is not to be missed.
- November 2011
Bird Pie A rural massacre! Singing corpses! And pie!
On a farm far from anywhere a family is brutally killed. While bumbling police mishandle vital evidence, the gory corpses begin to dance and sing... This delicately judged drama jumps between the present time of the murders, and a poignant exploration of one childhood gone awry. With an audaciously shifting tonal range, a grotesque musical comedy meets a brutal exposé of love, loss and factory farming. What dark secrets is the schizophrenic sister holding back from her analyst? What sociopathic intimacies does the brother reveal on a camping trip in Snowdonia? What epiphanies have been so long hidden in the chicken shed? And what has any of this to do with pie? These questions and many others are answered by the outrageously daring winner of the 2011 John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan 'Other' Prize: Bird Pie!
- November 2011
"I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger - anything that can blow your candles out! - for nowadays the world is lit by lightning.
Blow out your candles, Laura."
St. Louis. 1937. The Wingfields, trapped by poverty, struggle to survive. Stuck in a dead-end job, would-be poet Tom seeks solace in liquor and late night movies while supporting his mother, Amanda, and delicate sister, Laura. When he invites Jim O'Connor home to dinner, we are met with a man who has the power to shatter the family's illusions.
The world-famous Marlowe Society (“a powerhouse of theatrical expertise” – Sir Ian McKellen) presents Tennessee Williams’s most intimate dramatic masterpiece.
- October 2011
The Orphanarium of Erthing Worthing is a silly new comedy by two of Cambridge's biggest goofs:
"Orphans come and go, but some just stay for ever." Marcus is on orphanage work-experience and it's all gone a bit weird. Is it the eccentric proprietor with a fur-coat made of 'er not cats'? The Zimmer-frames piled up in the hallway? The fact that there's not a child in sight? Yes, it's probably that. In seventy years, no orphan has graduated from the Orphanarium of Mr Erthing Worthing, and Marcus has been sent by the villainous Jocelyn Cuddles to put a stop to this un-parented chaos. Cuddles, CEO of Closing Ltd, delights in closing everything he can: fridge doors, the borders of small countries, even his eyes. Now, it's the Orphanarium in the firing line.
Amidst the bunch of kleptomaniac/French-exchange/former glamour-model geriatrics is Dorinda, orphan nanny and all-round good-time gal. Will she be the one to convince Marcus that being an orphan is for life, not just for Christmas house-fires?
Probably, but that would be telling.
- June 2011
“Anything but that! If I had to, I’d walk through fire to stop this war, but give up sex? My dear Lysistrata, there’s nothing like it!”
Lysistrata has a problem. It’s big. It’s huge. And it’s really really hard. The men are waging war against each other and their wives want it to stop. Salvation is in the hands of the women. Or rather, between their legs. In times where peace is hard to negotiate, the wives of our leaders decide to take action and exploit their most powerful bargaining tool. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then what could abstinence do...?
- May 2011
I Found My Horn (Varsity *****) will return to Cambridge for one night only on the main stage of the Sidney Sussex Arts Festival, on Saturday 25th June 2011. Starring Oskar McCarthy and directed by Jack Furness, the show was a huge success at the ADC this term as the Week 3 late show.
Here's the Varsity review: http://www.varsity.co.uk/reviews/3600
You can find out more about the festival here: http://www.sidneyartsfestival.co.uk/
And you can buy tickets here: http://www.adcticketing.com/
“It takes bollocks of Sheffield steel to play the French horn in public!”
Ever learnt a musical instrument? Then dropped it on leaving school? And secretly regretted it ever since? Then whether you’re a virtuoso, lapsed instrumentalist, music lover, or just looking for an uplifting break from the depths of your revision, this is the show for you.
Jasper Rees, seeking redemption after a lay-off of 25 years, clambers into the attic and uncovers the sixteen feet of treacherous brass tubing he never mastered in his youth. Picking up his old French horn, he sets himself an impossible task: to perform a Mozart concerto in front of a paying audience of horn experts. Madness? Perhaps; but for Jasper, there's no choice. It's now, or it’s never.
Adapted from the best-selling book, I Found My Horn has been called “irresistible” (Sunday Times), “delightful, warm, witty” (Mail on Sunday) and “inspiring, moving and quite hilarious” (Classical Music Magazine). Featuring some of the most beautiful horn music ever written, including live performance, this captivating one-man show comes to the Sidney Sussex Arts Festival determined to remind you that it’s never too late to conquer your demons.
- March 2011
- February 2011
Come and bask in the Mediterranean warmth of one of Shakespeare's most glowing comedies. Much Ado About Nothing offers an orange of a plot, with an abundance of comic zest and some sour pips in the middle, but a sweet resolution. It's a feisty few rounds of the eternal battle of the sexes.
For the romantically inept Beatrice and Benedick, the course of true love is bulldozed through by a practical joke; for the more conventional Claudio and Hero, it is almost tragically blasted off course by a spiteful subterfuge. The storm almost threatens to shatter the teacup, and it takes the halfwit Dogberry, a buffoon of a local law enforcement official, to almost unwittingly save the day.
NT Director Carl Heap will bring to the play his experience of producing pre-Shakespearean theatre for his groundbreaking touring company The Medieval Players. He sees Shakespeare not so much as literary heritage, but as a talented heir to the pre-Shakespearean traditions of popular theatre.
- November 2010
Everything's normal, isn't it? People do break up all the time and it's nothing to get too worked up about. In fact, if there's a party on just after you might as well go to it anyway. Why not? Do you like parties? You know what goes on at parties. How well do you know your friends? How well do you know yourself?
This year's winner of the Marlowe/RSC The Other Prize opens the door to some disturbing guests -- and they're all best friends.
- October 2010
Calling all highly cultured persons!!!
Come and see three, that's right... three talented individuals as they work their way through the thirty seven works of the master playwright William Shakespeare...well kind of...
Back at the ADC, the Marlowe Society proudly present this hilarious revival of a comedy classic.
“What cheek! What nerve! What sheer, heavenly, unadulterated fun!” Sunday Express
- October 2010
The world-famous Marlowe Society ("a powerhouse of theatrical expertise" - Sir Ian McKellen) is proud to work with the ADC Theatre to bring to life Jonson's finest masterpiece.
Living in a stolen house, Face, Subtle and Dol Common are making themselves a fortune. Imagine, if you can, a world full of the greedy, false and ambitious, all out for everything they can get. Imagine a world where the desire for money and sex drives individuals to believe the most outrageous things. Imagine a world where such an indulgent philosophy leads its residents into farcical and extraordinary situations. Our three heroes are master con-artists. Employing a spectacular array of characters and costumes they entice, seduce, deceive and hustle their way through the playwright’s most colourful and eclectic collection of characters with hilarious results.
Ben Jonson wrote The Alchemist to satirise the London of his time, however, his precise, witty and enlightened depiction of humanity remains shockingly relevant today.
The Marlowe Society exists to perform Elizabethan, verse, and non-realist plays and to provide unique opportunities for the students of Cambridge University. The Marlowe Society continues to involve and invite their alumni. There is a strong possibility that some of these alumni, including Simon Russell Beale and Ian McKellen, will come back to watch and support this show and give speeches before the performance begins. The opportunity to be a part of such an adventurous production to be performed for such illustrious audience members is something few shows can offer in Cambridge.
Any questions or queries please contact the director, John Haidar, on jh705.
- June 2010
“My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.” What are Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff to do when they learn that the young women they worship can only ever love men named Ernest? Lie, of course. This May Week, the Marlowe Society presents all the romance and all the subversive wit of Oscar Wilde’s final play.
- April 2010
The world famous Marlowe Society is proud to work with the ADC theatre to bring to life Jonson's finest masterpiece.
Living in a stolen house, Face, Subtle and Doll Common are making themselves a fortune.
Imagine, if you can, a London full of the greedy, false and ambitious, all out for everything they can get. Imagine a London where the desire for money (and every now and again sex) drives individuals to believe the most outrageous things. Imagine a London where this indulgent philosophy leads its residents into farcical and extraordinary situations. Jonson wrote The Alchemist to satirise the London of his time but his precise and enlightened depiction of humanity remains scarily relevant today.
Our three...heroes...are master con-artists. Employing a spectacular array of characters and costumes they entice, seduce, befuddle and hustle their way through Jonson's most colourful and eclectic collection of characters with hilarious results.
The Marlowe Society exists to perform Elizabethan, verse, and non-realist plays and to provide unique opportunities for the students of Cambridge University. The Marlowe Society continues to involve and invite their alumni. There is a strong possibility that some of these alumni, including Simon Russell Beale (who played Face at the National in 2006), will come back to watch and support this show and give speeches before the performance begins. The opportunity to be a part of such an adventurous production to be performed for such illustrious audience members is something few shows can offer in Cambridge.
Any questions or queries please contact director Matt Bulmer on mab85.
- February 2010
- February 2010
Administrator's note: it is unclear from our record of this show whether it occured at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge or London. (2019 database update)
- November 2009
Winner of the RSC/ Marlowe Other Prize for new writing, Going Short takes you behind the scenes in the world of investment banking during the Northern Rock crisis.
With tempers running high and huge sums of money at stake, two hedge fund managers are desperately trying to make a killing from the chaos.
Can it be legal? Can it be moral? And more importantly, will it make them happy?
