There's More To Theatre Than Shakespeare
Mumbai Theatre Guide
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Wednesday, 03 September 2025
There's More To Theatre Than Shakespeare
An editorial in The Guardian wonders why Christopher Marlow, the second most famous playwright in the UK, has become an "ephemeral figure" in Britain's national culture.
"His plays, once staples, are now produced only intermittently, if at all. Today, Marlowe is probably better known for his dramatic death, stabbed in a London riverside tavern, than for anything he wrote or for being the literary pioneer that he was," says the piece, noting that Marlow will be played by Ncuti Gatwa, in Liz Duffy Adams's new two-hander, BORN WITH TEETH.
The editorial suggests, "Two things could and should be done to restore Marlowe to his rightful place. The first, obviously and simply, is to study and produce his plays more. Schools and exam boards have crucial roles here, but the subsidised theatre should lead the way. The second is to commemorate Marlowe properly. The playwright's violent death in Deptford Strand, on the south bank of the Thames, is the stuff of conspiracy theories and speculation. Yet walk along Deptford Strand and you will find no monument there to this baleful event. A wall plaque in St Nicholas's church graveyard notes that Marlowe's remains were buried nearby. But the site is littered with empty beer bottles. We surely owe Marlowe greater honour than this."
So does the rest of the world that values theatre.
"A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it."
Thornton Wilder
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