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Here in Stratford-upon-Avon
there is just no escaping him.

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Shakespeare tat.

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Shakespeare, not as Bard, but how
the mighty have fallen, as a brand.

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And there is always more to come.

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Next year, brace yourself for
the great man's 400th anniversary.

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Shakespeare has been such
a towering figure for

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so long he has all but eclipsed the
other great playwrights of his age.

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And so, for this,
my edition of Artsnight,

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I want to ask this question:

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What about all
the other extraordinary, witty,

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talented risk-taking dramatists
of the Renaissance stage?

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What about Marlowe, Webster, Ford,
Middleton, Johnson?

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Men who didn't necessarily think
like William Shakespeare, who were

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less transfixed by kings and queens
and hierarchy, more interested in

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the day-to-day lives of the English
around them, and therefore were

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writing the soap operas
of Elizabethan and Jacobean stage.

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Sex romps, domestic tragedies.

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If, in some parallel universe where
the great figure of

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the Bard had somehow vaporised, and
we saw our own past through their

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eyes, how different would it feel?

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Right now, the RSC and Shakespeare's
Globe in London are reviving some

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of these other playwrights
at a festival of Not Shakespeare,

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because the Bard was never alone.

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We are used to the idea of
Los Angeles as the place where film

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is being developed now.

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Think that London was exactly
the same when theatre began to

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get underway on the South Bank.

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All sorts of dramatists
from all over,

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creating a new style of writing.

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One playwright, born 20 years
after Shakespeare, mostly forgotten

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by history and being rediscovered
right now, is John Ford.

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John Ford is one
of the most underestimated

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playwrights of the age.

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He was born in Devon, a bit younger
than Shakespeare, and he specialised

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in intense psychological thrillers
on subjects like adultery, incest,

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and witchcraft.

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For John Ford, the great motivator
in human life is the sex drive.

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And for centuries he was written
off as a bit melodramatic,

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a bit too much.

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But now a group of actors,
directors and academics are

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determined to bring John Ford back
to the modern stage.

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Shakespeare's Globe is dedicating
a whole season to this virtually

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unknown playwright.

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Today actors are gathering
in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to

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start rehearsals on Ford's bizarre
tragicomedy, The Queen.

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Could we have all the guys
in the first scene on.

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Ford was writing during the reign
of Charles I, an age of courtly

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decadence, and in the theatre
of extravagance and sensationalism.

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The poison of a flatterer's tongue,
is a thousand times more deadly

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than the twinges of a rope.

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Fie!

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Do you rail on your friends thus?

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The theatre's profanity
and edgy realism would prompt

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the Puritans to close them
down altogether a decade later.

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Save for one play,
Tis Pity She's A Whore, Ford's work

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has never come back into fashion.

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Until now.

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At The Globe, the actors are
getting a crash course in Ford.

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They are mounting five
of his plays in as many days.

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And they have just six hours from
first readthrough to stepping out on

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the stage for a live performance.

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Apparently it's the way it
used to be done quite a lot.

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You got the script on the day
in Shakespeare and John Ford's day.

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Things were quite impulsive
and straight up rather than

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considered, over four or five weeks
like we do nowadays.

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Come in.

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Stay, execution.

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It is Her Majesty's pleasure.

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The Queen is the tale
of a woman-hating rebel,

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condemned to death
for plotting to kill the Queen.

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Strangely, she falls
in love with him just before his

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execution, pardons and marries him.

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You are sorry for your late
desperate rudeness, are you not?

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I am not sorry.

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Nay more, will not be sorry.

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Know from me, I hate your sex.

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It's a darkly humorous play that
speaks to Ford's most unusual mind.

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Ford is a dramatist whose very
interested in mental health,

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if you like, in modern terms.

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He's very sympathetic to people who
have odd, unusual mental conditions.

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You have characters who are
melancholy, who have weird

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delusions, peculiar sexual tastes.

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And this is not seen
as something that one looks at

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and shudders, but rather that one
as an audience tries to understand.

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Meanwhile, in Stratford,
the Royal Shakespeare Company is

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staging Ford's Love's Sacrifice,
in the first known public

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performance in 400 years.

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A tale of jealousy, betrayal
and bitter revenge, it tells the

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story of a rich duke whose wife and
best friend fall for each other.

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It's classic Ford - sex, yes.

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Gore, you bet.

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But also real psychological insight.

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If anybody has ever felt love or
jealousy or ambition, then they are

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there, depicted in Love's Sacrifice.

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I think John Ford is
a really interesting playwright.

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His obsession with the extremities
of human psychology, Tis Pity She's

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A Whore is a play about incest.

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Here is a play
about excessive jealousy.

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Ford's genius lies
in his characters,

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such as the clownish nobleman,
Mauruccio, played by Matthew Kelly.

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This fantastic coat, look at this.

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It looks like
my mam's lounge curtains, this.

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It probably could be, actually.

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Isn't that fabulous?

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You don't think my bum looks big
in this, do you?

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Kelly's character is a comic fool,
related somehow to

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Shakespeare's Malvolio, Ford gives
him real complexity and heart.

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He's a big, daft nelly, really.

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I don't know why they picked me!

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But I'm digging very deep for that,
obviously.

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But I did understand that part.

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And actually, strangely, he is the
silliest man in it on the surface,

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but in actual fact he turns out to
be the most moral and is the only

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one to actually have a happy ending.

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I don't want to spoil it
for anybody else, but it gets pretty

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intense and pretty tragic.

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Back at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse,
six hours

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after the first readthrough,
the audience is arriving for the

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performance of Ford's The Queen.

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She goes upstairs.

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But the actors are far from ready.

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Let him come back on.

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Come back on.

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They are still rehearsing
the final act.

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We are going now?!

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We are live in five seconds.

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Thank you.

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It is madness, obviously.

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You could say it is incompetence,
or you could say it's managed manic

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nonsense.

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Given that we have five hours to
rehearse a 21,000 word play with 15

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characters,
that's just the way that it works.

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APPLAUSE.

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Rascal, cannibal,
that feedest on men's flesh.

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Pray, pray heartily gentleman.

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As I live, and by this hand now...

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LAUGHTER.

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Queen,
here quaffed my blood like wine.

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Alas, poor man.

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APPLAUSE.

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So what do the audience make of
John Ford's The Queen?

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It was a bit Pythonesque in a way,
the way the language just cantered

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along, and yet sometimes it kind
of horrifies you by doing things

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it's not supposed to do.

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You feel Shakespeare
would be more proper.

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It was good it was
completely unpolished.

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It's nice to see them
something quite raw.

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Some of the comic
performances were fantastic.

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They don't really fit
into modern ideas

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of psychological consistency, they
veer in all sorts of directions.

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I enjoyed it hugely, but I still
think it's a very odd play.

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So, Ford, with his emphasis on sex
and extreme emotional conditions is

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very different from Shakespeare.

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Ben Johnson, a much bigger figure,
focuses his attention

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on satirising society as a whole.

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A chippy, rough edged,
intellectually brilliant,

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working-class Londoner, Johnson
assaulted the nouveau riche.

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Anger thrums through his plays
and coloured his private life.

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A soldier, he narrowly escaped
hanging for killing a man in a duel.

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In his day, Jonson's sharp
edged writing was adored.

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He was
the first playwright to publish

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his collective works and he was
buried here at Westminster Abbey.

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The great mystery about Ben Jonson
is why he's not better known today.

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In his lifetime he was just
as famous as Shakespeare,

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if not more so.

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His gritty, urban satires are
saturated with the language

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of the street and revel in the
ordinary lives of common people.

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A lifelong fan is Sir Trevor Nunn,
the celebrated director,

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whose production of Jonson's
Volpone, opens here at the Royal

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Shakespeare Company in Stratford.

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Sir Trevor Nunn,
best known as a great Shakespearean

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director, and for blockbuster
musicals like Cats, once ran the

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RSC, and back in 1986 he was pivotal
in creating The Swan Theatre.

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Its special job is not Shakespeare,
to put on plays

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by other Renaissance dramatists,
and it's at The Swan that he is now

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returning with Jonson's Volpone.

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I met Sir Trevor in the airy
rehearsal room above its stage to

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talk about the remarkable Ben.

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A London boy coming
from quite a poor background,

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the language he uses is
the language of the London streets.

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I would say Jonson's language is
an extraordinary mixture

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of two extremes.

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He was brought up
by a stepfather who was a bricklayer

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to whom he became apprenticed.

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And then a kind of miracle
happened in Jonson's life.

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He managed to get a place,
I suppose some sort of scholarship

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place, at the Westminster School.

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And he did a great deal of classics,
and that never left him.

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And therefore,
in every Jonson play, there is a

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huge amount of classical allusion.

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And yet,
it is combined with street slang.

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A lot
of Jonson's language is even more

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conversational than Shakespeare.

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And a very,
very different character as well.

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As we have alluded to,
almost slightly chippy, perhaps,

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about his background.

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Very, very proud of his learning.

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Confrontational.

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I'm sure Jonson was a handful.

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I'm sure that he could be abrasive.

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And some of the anger, the
accusatory anger in his plays, was

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drawn from his personal life, or
tipped over into his personal life.

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Anger is central to Volpone,
a dark satire about

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a wealthy man who is obsessed with
gold, and wants to get even richer.

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Good morning to the day, and next,
my gold.

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Hail the world's soul, and mine.

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00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:53,240
Volpone comes up with
a scam to con his rich and equally

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greedy clients out of more money
by feigning his own death.

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Probably Ben Jonson's best-known
play, and an absolute cracker,

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what is it about Volpone that
particularly attracts you now?

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00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:10,400
I think Jonson wrote that play
as a confrontational piece.

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00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,640
I think he wanted to be addressing
his audience direct

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on the subject of greed.

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And as we all well know, the subject
of greed is not just still with us,

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it's even more present than ever.

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00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,640
And it's extraordinary how much
of the language seems still to

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00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:34,960
relate to the crises that make
front-page news at the moment.

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Because this is a play in
which everybody is parasitical

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on everybody else.

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Yes, but he's already
a very wealthy man.

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And the people who he's tricking,
are all of them very wealthy.

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So it isn't about, how do I come
by a bit of money in this life?

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It's about, I must have more.

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And therefore I must have
more than other people.

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I must have the most.

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Jonson was, yes, exaggerating,
yes, placing believable people

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in exaggerated, comedic situations,
but with a real intention of getting

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people to think in a way that says,
"We need to change this, don't we?"

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So enormously ambitious, in fact.

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Yeah, he's definitely a social
reformer, and in Volpone vastly so.

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He's writing about greed
and a sense of contemporary London.

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And this is early capitalist London,

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just as we now have late capitalist
London, in some respects.

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Very late. Very late, yes.

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Sir Trevor Nunn, thank you
very much indeed. A pleasure.

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00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:58,080
So, again,
nothing like most of Shakespeare,

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Jonson's plays satirised
the moneyed classes of the day.

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Other Renaissance dramatists
concentrated their work

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00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,840
on a different group - women.

240
00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,640
One of the joys
of Renaissance plays

241
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,520
is that they are brimming
with fantastic female parts -

242
00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:17,360
young women, old woman,
good women, bad women -

243
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,200
and the likes of Ford and Webster
went even further

244
00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:22,440
than Shakespeare
in taking the tragic heroine

245
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,680
and thrusting her to the forefront
of their dramas.

246
00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:31,360
By the early 17th century,
playwrights such as John Webster

247
00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,680
were even giving women
the title role.

248
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:38,840
So we are forced to express
our violent passions

249
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,720
in riddles and in dreams...

250
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:44,600
Here, Gemma Arterton is seen
playing the Duchess of Malfi

251
00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:48,160
as unassertive and
sexually confident heroine.

252
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:50,280
as an assertive and

253
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:56,240
Here, upon your lips,
I sign your Quietus est.

254
00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,520
In a recent RSC production
of Webster's The White Devil,

255
00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,720
set in modern times,
the lead role is a feisty woman

256
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,520
arrested for murdering her husband
after conducting an illicit affair.

257
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:15,040
I scorn to hold my life at yours,
or any man's entreaty, sir!

258
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,480
I think what we see
in the Jacobean repertory

259
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:20,960
is the role of female characters
becoming much more prominent.

260
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:22,960
They are women who are expressing
their will,

261
00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:24,880
expressing their desires,
their sexual desires,

262
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,640
how they want to live,
who they want to live with,

263
00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:32,960
trying to break out of the
sort of patriarchal structures

264
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,320
that are telling them
how to live their lives.

265
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:37,000
And unfortunately, in the tragedies,

266
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:41,720
it always ends up
that they end up paying for it.

267
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:45,480
And in Ford's Love Sacrificed,
the lead female gets her comeuppance

268
00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,360
for falling in love
with her husband's best friend

269
00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:54,080
and ends up murdered by her spouse
in cold blood.

270
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:58,920
In the face of death,
she remains defiant and unrepentant.

271
00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:02,360
The actor Catrin Stewart, best
known for her work in Doctor Who,

272
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:04,840
has relished playing
this 17th century role,

273
00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:09,680
a woman who is nobody's sidekick.

274
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:13,440
There's this amazing scene with
the Duke, her husband, at the end,

275
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:16,560
which I love performing,
because it's so modern,

276
00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:18,880
the language is so easy and free,

277
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,520
and she just completely
puts him down and provokes him.

278
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,160
And she says, "Thank heaven he was
so slow as not to wrong sheets,

279
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:33,760
for as I live, the fault was his,
not mine."

280
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,840
And then that drives him wild,
and it's really quite powerful

281
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:41,600
to perform every night,
I love doing it.

282
00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:46,400
She has this feistiness and strength
that is able to just put him down

283
00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:48,680
like that, I mean, it's amazing,

284
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,360
and the thought changes and all
these different tactics she uses.

285
00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:56,200
And he does eventually kill her
because she has provoked in so much,

286
00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:03,560
and she's willing to die
for the man she loves.

287
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,360
The role of women
in Renaissance theatre

288
00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:09,200
is the subject of a special workshop
at the San Wanamaker Playhouse,

289
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,440
the Globe's replica
Jacobean theatre.

290
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:16,160
The very first theatres
were open to the air,

291
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:21,520
but in the 1600s indoor playhouses
like this opened across London -

292
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:25,240
an innovation that helped
bring more women into the audience

293
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:30,560
and female roles to the stage.

294
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,480
Indoor theatres are smaller
than big outdoor theatres,

295
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,000
they are seen
as more socially exclusive.

296
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,760
Perhaps in a way
they are seen as safer,

297
00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,400
they are in more kind of posh
districts of town.

298
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,400
And so you have
a greater proportion of women going,

299
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,200
women going in couples,
women going with their husbands,

300
00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:50,400
women going, essentially,
unaccompanied

301
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:52,520
other than by a servant
to the theatre.

302
00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,360
And playwrights respond
by providing stories for them.

303
00:18:56,360 --> 00:19:00,000
But what we have to remember is that
during theatre's first flowering,

304
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,840
the female roles on stage
were never played by women.

305
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,120
In the 1620s and '30s,
female roles in all plays,

306
00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:11,360
both indoor and out,
were taken by boys or young men.

307
00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:17,360
It's sort of somewhere
between 12 and 22,

308
00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:19,720
so we're talking early teenage
into adolescent and young man.

309
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:21,920
Women never performed
on the commercial London stage

310
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:26,000
for reasons of propriety
and just history, really,

311
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,960
until right up until the 1640s.

312
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,280
I think dramatists were using
the idea of cross-dress performance

313
00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,120
as a potential source of interest.

314
00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:40,000
It can be funny, it can be sexy,
it can be erotic.

315
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,040
There can be all sorts
of layers of interest

316
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:48,320
packed into the idea that
a female role is played by a boy.

317
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:50,560
The Globe education team
wants to explore

318
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,600
how the audience
experiences a scene

319
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:58,680
when a boy actor plays the lead
female role, compared to a woman.

320
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:02,440
Fie, what's all this?
One of your eyes is bloodshot!

321
00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,560
Female actor Beth Park
takes to the stage first

322
00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,160
in Webster's The Duchess Of Malfi.

323
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:09,880
'Twas my wedding ring,

324
00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:13,720
and I did vow never to part with it
but to my second husband.

325
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,560
In this scene, the Duchess
is seen in a position of power,

326
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:20,760
controlling her servant, Antonio,
who she wants to marry.

327
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,880
You have made me stark blind. How?

328
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,680
There is a saucy and ambitious
devil is dancing in this circle.

329
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,800
Remove him.

330
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,000
Fie! Fie, what's all this?

331
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:38,320
Next up, 15-year-old guy Amos
performs the same extract.

332
00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:42,280
'Twas my wedding ring, and I did
vow never to part with it...

333
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,840
..but to my second husband.

334
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:51,720
You have parted with it now.
Yes, to help your eyesight.

335
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,720
APPLAUSE

336
00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:03,080
The dominance of him in the
beginning was much higher than hers.

337
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:05,800
I would say the main difference
is body language,

338
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:07,560
and I'd say, as a woman,

339
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,680
the way you hold your body
and the way you move your body,

340
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,480
it's very hard to replicate that
as a boy or a man.

341
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,200
I kind of disagree on the body
language, because I think

342
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:20,200
even the way you're standing now...
LAUGHTER

343
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,920
..the costume you're wearing
is making you move in a certain

344
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:24,600
and actually I found that
convincing.

345
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,480
It really emphasised
the theatricality of the scene,

346
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,480
of theatre, and it didn't matter
to me that you're not a woman,

347
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,320
I didn't hold that against you!

348
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,600
And I was absolutely convinced
by the role you were playing,

349
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:40,440
even while I was able to remember
that you're not a woman.

350
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:44,920
Many of Webster's female characters

351
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,800
are driven by the spirit
of rebellion,

352
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,000
and rebellion is at the heart
of my final example tonight

353
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,600
of not Shakespeare.

354
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,320
Christopher Marlowe

355
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:03,280
is known as the playwright
that Shakespeare learned from,

356
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:05,440
and also for his mighty line,

357
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,520
unrhymed but strongly rhythmical
verse,

358
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:11,800
of a kind picked up by Shakespeare
in every single one of his plays.

359
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,920
But what is often underestimated

360
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:17,840
is the difference
between the two as characters.

361
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,360
Christopher Marlowe
was a natural rebel,

362
00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:24,760
simply an angrier, pricklier
character than Shakespeare.

363
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,160
And I think the key to his work

364
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,520
lies in his extraordinary
and bizarre life,

365
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,560
an odder tale than any you would
ever see on the Elizabethan stage.

366
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,880
The eldest son of a shoemaker
from Canterbury,

367
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:37,960
who went on to grammar school,

368
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:40,800
and, unlike Shakespeare,
university at Cambridge,

369
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,760
Marlowe was a dark
and difficult man.

370
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,120
A natural outsider, he was a spy,

371
00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:50,560
almost certainly gay,
and probably an atheist.

372
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,800
His plays, including Doctor Faustus,
about the man who sells his soul

373
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:57,760
to the devil
for infinite knowledge,

374
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,760
were wildly popular but often trod
a dangerous line on religion.

375
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,160
To understand Marlowe's world
and his plays,

376
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,640
you have to start backwards
with a story of his death

377
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,600
here in east London
at the age of just 29.

378
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:17,600
Did Marlowe pay a terrible price
for his subversive writing?

379
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:22,440
On the 30th of May, 1593,
Marlowe was here at Deptford Strand,

380
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:27,440
which was then a grimy and busy
maritime port.

381
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,280
He spent the afternoon
in a lodging house near here,

382
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,000
talking and drinking
with three other men,

383
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,560
and then a couple of hours later,
he was dead,

384
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:41,160
killed by a dagger thrust through
the brain above the right eye.

385
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,960
The inquest put this down
to a drunken brawl,

386
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:48,440
but many people think there was
rather more to it than that.

387
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,800
Just before his death, we know
that Marlowe had been arrested

388
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,760
and placed under
government surveillance.

389
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,120
He was in trouble
because papers had come to light

390
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:02,640
suggesting he was expanding
extremely dangerous religious views.

391
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,080
suggesting he was expounding

392
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:09,560
The most damning of them,
the so-called Baines note,

393
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,200
accused Marlowe of being
a propagandist for extreme atheism.

394
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,040
Now, at a time
when the entire society and state

395
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,400
depended on a religious consensus,
this was tantamount to treason.

396
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,080
And so, many people believe that,

397
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:22,920
far from this being
an unfortunate brawl,

398
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:24,800
in fact Marlowe was the target

399
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:29,040
of a cold-blooded
political assassination.

400
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,320
Just down the road
in the local churchyard,

401
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:37,760
Marlowe is buried
in an unmarked grave.

402
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,200
Or is he?

403
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:43,000
Now, there is a theory

404
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,280
that Marlowe isn't buried
anywhere round here at all,

405
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:46,920
because his death was faked,

406
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,800
that it was a fix
by his powerful spying friends

407
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,240
who wanted to save his skin
and their own,

408
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:58,320
and so they arranged
for him to flee to the Continent.

409
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,480
Today, a plaque commemorates
the playwright.

410
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,800
Whilst we may never know
the truth about his death,

411
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:09,880
one thing is clear -

412
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,200
Marlowe was seen
as a dangerous religious rebel.

413
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,160
And he wasn't afraid to take
big risks in his writing either.

414
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:17,600
His play The Jew Of Malta

415
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:21,040
crackles with religious
and political intrigue.

416
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,600
On stage at the RSC this summer,

417
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,120
it's a tragic farce
about a Jew called Barabas

418
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:31,200
who has his wealth forcibly removed
by the Christians,

419
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,320
so Barabas sets out
to reap bloody revenge,

420
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,280
training his servant accomplices

421
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,080
in the art and mentality
of retribution.

422
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:44,200
First be thou void
of these affections,

423
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:50,920
compassion, love, vain hope,
and heartless fear.

424
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,080
Be moved at nothing,
see thou pity none,

425
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:59,040
but to thyself smile
when the Christians moan.

426
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:01,920
Brave master!

427
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,160
I talked to the director
of the RSC production

428
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,280
of The Jew Of Malta,
Justin Audibert.

429
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,400
Barabas, The Jew Of Malta, is in
some sense, of course the villain,

430
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,160
but he's quite an attractive
villain, and people argue

431
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:17,120
that he has some kind of
relationship to Marlowe himself.

432
00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:20,520
Like Marlowe, he's a person
that is really, really clever,

433
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,200
really, really intelligent,

434
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,040
and really, really good
at dealing with people.

435
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,120
And he's frustrated by the society
he's in, because he's an outsider.

436
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,480
I would say that Marlowe
sees himself,

437
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,600
a really talented guy
with this high education,

438
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,800
but the only kind of ways
he can make money

439
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,520
is by kind of indulging in, like,

440
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,760
activities that are
on the outside of society -

441
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,360
spying, counterfeiting money
and writing plays.

442
00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:48,000
And also probably he was gay,
the famous comment about,

443
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,040
"He is a fool who does not love
tobacco and boys."

444
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,880
Absolutely.
An outsider in every possible way.

445
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,120
An outsider in every possible sense,
and Barabas is kind of

446
00:26:57,120 --> 00:26:59,960
his phantasma, his revenge,
his way of getting back at society.

447
00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:01,640
And, of course, this is a play,

448
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,640
although it is directed in some
respects against Jews and Judaism,

449
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:06,680
it is really against religion
of all kind,

450
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:08,920
and this, in many respects,
seems to be a play

451
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:10,960
which is toying with
the idea of atheism.

452
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,040
It's not absolutely explicit,
but it's involving the audience

453
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,720
in that kind of complicity, quite
a dangerous thing to be doing.

454
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,520
One of the most radical things
you could possibly be doing.

455
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,160
I suppose, if you were looking
for a 21st century equivalent,

456
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,560
it would be making
some kind of piece of work

457
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:28,520
that suggested joining Isis
was a good idea.

458
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:29,880
It was that radical an idea.

459
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,280
There are people, of course,
who think that Marlowe escaped

460
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:33,920
and isn't buried here,
but went abroad

461
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:35,120
and re-emerged
as William Shakespeare.

462
00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:36,560
What do you make of that?

463
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,120
If he did, he had an awful great
playwriting transplant,

464
00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:41,520
because having worked on the plays
of both of them,

465
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:43,280
they are completely different
in tone, in quality,

466
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,360
in the themes
that they are interested in.

467
00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:51,360
It feels to me that Marlowe has
a kind of anarchistic spirit.

468
00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:56,040
His plays are about big ideas,
they are often

469
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:58,680
about a kind of outsider of sorts
railing against the system,

470
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:00,840
and he's interested
in the kind of...

471
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,760
slightly more in the shades
of grey of political endeavour.

472
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,480
The mystery of Marlowe's death
may never be solved,

473
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,280
but his plays endure.

474
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:13,840
And so, against the odds,
do a whole clutch of great writers

475
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:18,960
who have only one misfortune -
that they are not Shakespeare.

476
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:23,840
And I'm going to leave you
with 15-year-old Guy Amos

477
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:27,120
playing The White Devil.

478
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:30,160
Here he is in John Webster's play
as Isabella,

479
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:34,040
desperate to regain
her husband's love.

480
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:39,520
Doth not my absence from you
now two months merit one kiss?

481
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,960
I do not use to kiss.

482
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,400
If that will dispossess your
jealousy, I'll swear to it.

483
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,720
Oh, my loved lord,
I do not come to chide.

484
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,280
My jealousy!

485
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:55,720
You are as welcome to these
longing arms, as I to you a virgin.

486
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,960
Oh, your breath!

487
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,240
Out upon physic and...

488
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,920
something sweetmeats,
the plague is in them!

489
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,760
You have oft, for these two lips,
neglected cassia

490
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,880
or the natural sweets
of the spring violet.

491
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,480
They are not yet much withered.