After the 2017 production of Dido, Queen of Carthage, we had presented all of Christopher Marlowe’s major works – with the exception of the incomplete The Massacre at Paris. Take a look at some of our previous shows from the past 30 years below.

The Jew of Malta, 1987

Our current Artistic Director, Gregory Doran, played Don Mathias in Barry Kyle’s 1987 production. Marlowe’s controversial play influenced one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, The Merchant of Venice, and follows the Jew Barabas as he plots a bloody revenge on the Christians and Turks he believed wronged him. 

Edward II, 1990

Gerard Murphy directed Simon Russell Beale as the troubled Edward II in 1990. One of the earliest English history plays, Marlowe’s tragedy follows the King’s obsession with his favourite subject, Piers Gaveston.

Tamburlaine the Great, 1993

Terry Hands directed Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great – the first ‘smash-hit’ of the Elizabethan stage – with Antony Sher as the titular emperor in 1992. Earthy, visceral and physical, Hands’ production transferred to the Barbican and won the London Evening Standard award for Best Director in 1993.

The Jew of Malta, 2015

Justin Audibert made his RSC directorial debut with Marlowe’s dark, provocative and wickedly funny drama, with Jasper Britton as the Jewish outcast Barabas, in the Swan Theatre in 2015. 

Doctor Faustus, 2016

Maria Aberg directed Marlowe’s notorious tale of vanity, greed and damnation in the Swan Theatre last year. Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan shared the roles of the embittered academic Faustus and the demon Mephistopheles. Each night, the decision as to who plays who was made live on stage by lighting a match. Whoever's match went out first 'lost' and played the damned Doctor.