Edward II

  • 2013/2014 Season
  • [New Translation]
    Performed in Japanese
  • THE PIT

October, 2013

  This production is part of a series conceived by Artistic Director Miyata Keiko (now in her fourth year), in which Ms. Miyata works closely with budding directors on the development of new productions.
  Director Mori Shintaro will tackle Edward II by Christopher Marlowe, one of the leading playwrights of Elizabethan England. Mori wowed with his directorial talents in NNTT's April 2011 production of Waiting for Godot ("Japan Meets" series, pt. IV). Edward II has been given a new translation by Kawai Shoichiro. Christopher Marlowe, who was a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote six plays which also include Doctor Faustus and The Jew of Malta. Edward II will be the first of Marlowe's plays to be mounted as a full-fledged production in Japan.
  Marlowe is said to have greatly influenced Shakespeare; that influence can be seen in the latter's history play, Richard II. This daring production of Marlowe's multi-protagonist play features a detailed recreation of a forest, and is certain to get the theatre world talking.

SYNOPSIS

  This history play depicts some of the triumphs and tragedies in the short and tumultuous life of King Edward II (House of Plantagenet), who ruled England from 1307 to 1327.
  Following the death of his father the King, and against the advice of his nobles, Edward II begins granting various titles and positions on a particular favourite, a French knight named Piers Gaveston. This draws the ire of the late king's devoted vassals, and soon Gaveston is banished. Edward II takes advantage of Queen Isabella's love for him, and manages to have Gaveston recalled. But then, faced with Gaveston's arrogant behavior and the realization that Edward will never truly love her, Isabella hatches a plot with her lover, Mortimer; Gaveston is tortured to death, and the king is imprisoned. Isabella and Mortimer then scheme to have the prince (Edward III) take over the throne, and Edward II is murdered.

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