Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe is certainly one of the more complex and fascinating characters from Elizabethan history. As he was born into the working class, little was written about him during his own life, so few facts are known about him. He was born in Canterbury in 1564. He earned his bachelor's degree from Cambridge twenty years later, and had difficulty securing his master's degree three years after that. He wrote the still-performed classics Tamburlaine and Edward II, and is best remembered for his Doctor Faustus. He died at age 29 in 1593. 

Exactly how he died, and why, are still matters for debate, however. Harlan Didrickson attempts to find some answers in his complex and violent play Marlowe, which enjoyed its New York premiere at the Fringe. In the play, the father of modern English drama is made a spy for Queen Elizabeth (which the real man may have been), and has many adventures in her service. His literary career takes a backseat to his various love affairs and his complex relationship with Her Majesty.

And therein lies the play's greatest weakness. Real lives usually do not revolve around one particular theme or idea. Good drama, on the other hand, does. Biographical plays, therefore, usually need to find some central heart on which they can concentrate if they are to hold an audience's interest. Simply moving from action to action does not compelling theatre make. In trying to capture the many different facets of Marlowe's life, Didrickson largely ignores Marlowe the groundbreaking writer and Marlowe the possible spy in favor of Marlowe the lover, the least interesting of his personas. Worse yet, Marlowe the lover is involved both professionally and romantically with Queen Elizabeth, causing her to behave in highly unregal ways. It is difficult to imagine that Didrickson's vision of the Virgin Queen would have the strength and nerves of steel to hold on to England against nearly impossible odds, as the real lady did. In Marlowe, Elizabeth is little more than a lovestruck girl who acts on impulse and emotion rather than logic and intellect, and allows her subjects to mock and insult her to her face. While it is always fascinating to see the private life of a famous public figure, the two sides must form a logical whole. It is doubtful that a Queen who nearly had a man executed for turning his back to her as he left the room would calmly allow commoners to call her "bitch" to her face.

These discrepancies and weaknesses would probably not be so frustrating if there were not quite a few moments of considerable emotional power and wit, suggesting that Didrickson has the skill to create a much stronger play. (When a character mentions that Marlowe's friend and mentor Thomas Kyd "disappeared" from the literary scene, Marlowe snaps back that "he didn't disappear; everyone just stopped looking.") Excerpts from Marlowe's plays are put to dramatically strong use in the script, aptly commenting on the real-life action. Kerith Wolf's costumes are magnificent, period-accurate and truly lovely. Timothy W. Hull and Kevin Mayes have some good chemistry as Marlowe and Thomas (cousin of the legendary Francis) Walsingham. David Zak's direction is intense and tight, sustaining the mood even when the script weakens.

If only for his significant contributions to English drama, Christopher Marlowe deserves a brilliant play to be written about him. Harlan Didrickson shows plenty of imagination and care in this effort, but needs to reexamine its heart if the play is to honor Marlowe properly.