Past Marlowe Productions

Explore some of our previous productions of plays by Christopher Marlowe.

Our production of Tamburlaine later this year marks only the second time we have staged this epic tragedy by Christopher Marlowe. With the exception of the incomplete The Massacre at Paris, we will have presented all of his major works at least once over the last 30 years. Take a look at some of our previous productions in the gallery below.

Christopher Marlowe's Plays

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.

Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

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 subjects, Piers Gaveston.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Image Licensing

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.

Photo by Reg Wilson © RSC – Image Licensing

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.

Photo by Ellie Kurtz © RSC – Image Licensing

DOCTOR FAUSTUS, 2016

Maria Aberg directed Marlowe’s notorious tale of vanity, greed and damnation in the Swan Theatre in 2016. 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.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, 2017

Kimberley Sykes directed Marlowe's rarely told story of the intensity of human passion in the Swan Theatre last year. Chipo Chung and Sandy Grierson played the lovers Queen Dido and Aeneas, whose lives change forever when the meddling Gods intervene. Ti Green's set featured an immense sand pit which covered the stage, and a large water curtain for the epic storm scenes.