Sport for Jove continues to make a brilliant contribution to the cultural life of Sydney with their Edward II this October ’15. The surge of human emotion proves ultimately uncontrollable for King Edward when news arrives that the barons and nobles, despising and resentful, have murdered his beloved Gaveston and a blood bath looms…
I will have heads and lives for him as many As I have manors, castles, towns, and towers!
Many commentators opine that this is Christopher Marlow’s most complete play. Kings and palaces, power and influence, intrigues and allegiances… are all the stuff of plays from this period, but both Gaveston and King Edward prove rather weak, vacillating characters who are at times self serving or indulgent. There’s an absence of noble qualities including among their opponents and the play falls short of becoming a classic.
The performances were strident and passionate, bristling in places, the fights were energetic, but the staging felt a little stilted – restricted by the conventional layout of the auditorium, I suspect. The violence at the King’s end left little to the imagination!
And get me a spit, and let it be red-hot!