MARLOWE'S FATE To Begin Performances May 10th At Theater Row

Tickets are now on sale for the Caravan Theatre Company's New York Premiere of MARLOWE'S FATE, an original play written and directed by Peter B. Hodges about two innocent men struggling to survive in an Elizabethan Age of Machiavellian spies, slapstick puppets and an outrageous avalanche of unintended consequences. The production is the second part of BATTLE OF THE BARDS: THE Christopher Marlowe FESTIVAL, a six week festival that features two original plays about William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and the stories behind the greatest literary deception of all time. MARLOWE'S FATE will run May 10th - May 26th in the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). The official opening will be on Thursday, May 17.

MARLOWE'S FATE, is a ferocious new comedy that spotlights Christopher Marlowe's last terrible night in London and ends a lifetime later with Will Shaxper's last explosive night on Earth.

Christopher Marlowe, the most talented and accomplished playwright and poet of his generation, meets his terrible fate in a shocking and surprising confrontation in a riverside tavern in Deptford. One week later, Shaxper (aka Shakespeare) is recruited to act as stand-in for the disgraced Marlowe, putting his alias on Marlowe's poem, Venus and Adonis. Five years later, as Shakespeare's fame grows, Ben Jonson is hired to keep him under control. The second act begins with a Punch and Judy Puppet show staging a title fight between Shakespeare and Marlowe puppets for the English literary crown. Finally, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton join Shaxper to celebrate his 52nd birthday at his daughter's inn where a lifetime of thwarted dreams reaches an explosive conclusion.

MARLOWE'S FATE is the second part of the Christopher Marlowe Festival, which includes Marlowe's Fate and The Shakespeare Conspiracy by Ted Bacino and Rufus Cadigan. This Festival is the first time that two original plays exposing the truth about the connection between Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare have ever been presented on a single stage.

The two productions will make their New York City premiere's just as new plagiarism software revealed further evidence that Christopher Marlowe was in fact the author of the plays credited to Shakespeare. How? Because the software revealed that a private manuscript written in 1576 was a source for a third of the plays in the First Folio. The manuscript was only available exclusively at Cambridge. Shakespeare never even visited Cambridge and could not have read the manuscript. Marlowe grew up there and graduated from the University with honors and commendations from members of the Queen's Privy Council. The manuscript influenced Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Faustus in addition to the plays credited to the uneducated, itinerant actor from Stratford.

MARLOWE'S FATE is an AEA approved Showcase and features an all Equity cast with Brady Adair*, Tim Dowd*, Thomas Grube*, Sarah Kiefer* and Len Rella* (*members of Actor's Equity Association).

The Production Staff includes Elizabeth Bove*, Assistant Director; Ben Young III, Technical Director; Samantha Stambuk, Stage Manager, Rafael Rosa, Assistant Stage Manager and Valeria Haedo Set Design.

Tickets are $22.25 (includes $2.25 handling fee) and can be purchased online at https://www.telecharge.com/Off-Broadway/Marlowes-Fate/Ticket. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or at the Theater Row Box Office prior to each performance. $10.00 Student Rush tickets are available one hour before show time at the box office. ($12.25 Seniors with code: TRMFSR online: www.telechargeoffers.com or call: 212-947-8844)

MARLOWE'S FATE will play on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays May 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25 and 26 at 8:00 pm and Sunday May 13 and 20 at 2:00 pm. The running time is 120 min.

Peter B. Hodges is the founder of The Caravan Theatre Company, Inc., the author of over a dozen plays, three novels, a memoir and a critical history of the plays of Sadakichi Hartmann. He is working on a book about Christopher Marlowe.

The Caravan Theatre Company, Inc. was formed as a non-profit arts organization in 1987 dedicated to developing and producing original American plays. Its last production, The Life of the Mind, was successfully workshopped and is under development as an independent film. Marlowe's Fate is the latest in what is projected to be several seasons of Equity Showcase productions all of which have been developed by The Caravan.

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