Edward II
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S grim tragedy is, understandably perhaps, the least often featured of his plays on the modern stage. With our contemporary fixation with LBGT+ concerns, it is not surprising that the RSCS artistic directors should have decided that the time is ripe for an airing. 

Daniel Evans, one of those directors, stars in Daniel Raggett’s new pared-down production.

It can be no spoiler for most people who will see this play to recognise that its focal point is necessarily the final horrific rape and murder of a weak and ineffectual king whose obsession with sexual “frolicking with his minion” at the expense of his country’s good brings about his downfall.

Although the opening scene presents all the panoply of the state funeral of Edward the First, with the central catafalque surrounded by his imposingly uniformed mourning courtiers and led by his son, this is no history play. 

Raggett’s 100-minute production has cut virtually all the sections of Marlow’s text dealing with political confrontations with France and Scotland, concentrating on the power-struggle between Edward and the Gang of indistinguishable barons intent on removing him from his upstart boyfriend, Gaviston.

Daniel Evans conveys all the helpless petulance of a spoilt child, moving in a moment from impotent rage to pathetic wheedling, in order to have his way and possess his toy-boy. Eloka Ivo’s manipulative Gaveston towers above this man-child who clings to him, only to transfer his affections to a ready replacement when his lover meets his end, dangling from a rope, at the hands of Edward’s persecutors.

Edward’s queen, Rutter Gedmintas’s Isabella, seems strangely out of place with little or no role in this production, except to decide that her husband is a lost cause and to transfer her interest to Enzo Celenti’s Mortimer, who transforms from a bespectacled member of the opposition to their ruthless leader, happy personally to cut the throat of the king’s brother and orchestrate the symbolic nature of Edward’s death. 

There are moments when Marlow touches Shakespearean heights as when Edward laments: “What are kings when regiment has gone but perfect shadows in the sunshine day?” but Edward elicits our true sympathies only when his naked childlike body is carried almost tenderly from the torture chamber, Pieta-like, in the arms of his enemy. 

Yes, sadly Marlowe’s play is cruel, cold and unforgiving — a play for today indeed!

Runs until April 5. Box office: 01789 331 111, rsc.org.uk