Symposium marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of Christopher Marlowe

On March 18, the School of English and MEMS will host scholars at a symposium about Christopher Marlowe’s plays. Canterbury-born Marlowe was a leading playwright of the sixteenth century and this year sees celebrations to mark the 450th anniversary of his birth. Marlowe 450 season includes performances at Canterbury Cathedral and The Marlowe Theatre. In the symposium scholars will examine Marlowe’s plays as performance texts, considering their staging in the early modern playhouse but also the interpretations of modern actors and directors. In its examination of the playwright’s dramaturgy, the symposium offers a discursive space to anticipate The Marlowe Theatre’s forthcoming performances.  Speakers and papers include:

  • Pascale Aebischer (Exeter), ‘Stanislavsky in the Closet: the Sub-text of the Off-Stage in Edward Hill-Gibbins’s Edward II (NT 2013)’
  • Andy Kesson (Roehampton), ‘Marlowe as Early Commercial Theatre’
  • Georgina Lucas (Shakespeare Institute), ‘”They that shall be actors in this massacre”: Staging Massacre in The Massacre at Paris’
  • Laurie Maguire (Oxford), ‘Dr Faustus: Staging the Early Modern Mind’
  • Stephen Purcell (Warwick), ‘Improvisation in Doctor Faustus: A Practical Experiment in Clowning’

To reserve a place at this free event please email, s.dustagheer-463@kent.ac.uk.

Sponsored by the School of English, the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies  and the Kent Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities.