Past Marlowe Productions

Woodcut from Title Page of Tamburlaine (1590 Octavo)

Tamburlaine the Great

This is an archive of past productions of Marlowe's plays Tamburlaine the Great Part I and Part II (including adaptations) from 2008 onwards that have all finished. The details and review links may still be of interest.

Tamburlaine the Great in Georgia - 2024

Decatur GA [2024]

  • Play: Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II
  • Date: Friday 13 September to Sunday 15 September 2024.
  • Performance Times: Part One: Friday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm; Part Two: Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 6:00pm.
  • Venue: Pythagoras Masonic Temple, 108 E. Ponce De Leon Ave, Decatur, GA 30030 [GoogleMaps]
  • Tickets: Priced $20 per performance or $30 for both performances on Sunday are available to purchase in advance online or at the box office prior to each performance.
  • Summary: Resurgens Theatre Company presents Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Dr Brent Griffin. "To complement our biennial conference on the plays of Christopher Marlowe, Resurgens proudly presents the return of Tamburlaine the Great, Parts One and Two. Join us again as we celebrate the "mighty line" and "high astounding terms" that forever change the soundscape of English theatre. Directed by Dr Brent Griffin, our 'original practices' production revives "the progress of his pomp" and gives Georgia the first-ever sequential mounting of Marlowe's "scourge of God and terror of the world"."
  • Website Links: Resurgens Theatre Company presents Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II at the Pythagoras Masonic Temple in Decatur GA.
Tamburlaine at RSC Swan - 2018

RSC [2018]

Yellow Earth Theatre presents Tamburlaine on tour - 2017

Yellow Earth Tour [2017]

  • Play: Tamburlaine
  • Dates: Wednesday 15 March to Friday 21 April 2017 2016 at various venues.
  • Yellow Earth tour performances:
    Arcola Theatre, London: 15 March to 08 April 2017;
    Old Fire Station, Oxford: 13-15 April 2017;
    Mercury Theatre, Colchester: 19-20 April 2017;
    Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham: 21 Aprl 2017.
  • Ticket: Available online from venue websites and box offices.
  • Reviews: Guardian; Times [£]; Peter Kirwan (UoN Bardathon); The Stage; Time Out; Whats On Stage; British Theatre Guide; Islington Gazette; Theatre Bubble; Plays to See; There Ought to be Clowns; Reviewing Shakespeare; Theatre Full Stop; LondonTheatre1; The Play's The Thing; Exuent Magazine.
  • Summary: Yellow Earth Theatre presents Tamburlaine written by Christopher Marlowe, both parts adapted and directed by Ng Choon Ping, with Lourdes Faberes as Tamburlaine. "Ambition. Subjugation. Immortality. Yellow Earth Theatre presents Christopher Marlowe's thrilling, controversial, and compelling masterpiece Tamburlaine. The story of a lowly shepherd who rises to power and conquers half the world through sheer brutality and self-belief. Presented by a mostly female British East Asian cast in a startling new adaptation, it calls into question the nature of masculinity and violence. What makes a king? What makes a father? What makes a man? In the modern world, where retaliatory air strikes are applauded as strength, where social justice is a luxury that must give way to economic expansion, where much of the devastation in the Middle East is a legacy of Western imperialism – Marlowe holds up a mirror to reveal our deepest and darkest desires, and asks whether art should comfort or disrupt. In an age when Trump can become leader of the free world, conflict rages across the Middle East, Europe is increasingly divided and a new power from the East asserts its growing dominance, Marlowe's classic takes on a new urgency and relevance for our time."
  • Website Links: Yellow Earth Theatre presents Tamburlaine on tour | Trailer Video | Interview with Lourdes Faberes in The Stage
Lazarus Theatre Co presents Tamburlaine the Great at The Tristan Bates Theatre, London - 2015

Covent Garden [2015]

  • Play: Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II
  • Dates: Tuesday 25 August to Saturday 12 September 2015.
  • Performance Times: Monday to Saturday evenings at 19:45.
  • Venue: Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower St, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9NP [Map]. Tube: Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly lines) or Covent Garden (Piccadilly line).
  • Tickets: Priced £15 | £11 concessions | £10 previews available online or ring the box office.
  • Post-Show Q&A: Hosted by Terri Paddock on Wednesday 02 September, with guests including Andy Kesson and former Marlowe Society Chairman Ken Pickering.
  • Reviews: LondonTheatre1; Everything Theatre; The Play's The Thing; A Younger Theatre; The Absent Reviewer; Reviews Gate; West End Wilma.
  • Summary: The Lazarus Theatre Company presents both parts of Tamburlaine the Great written by Christopher Marlowe, adapted and directed by Ricky Dukes, with Prince Plockey in the role of Tamburlaine. "Dictator, lover, husband and murderer, Tamburlaine the Great hits the stage in a gripping, physical and brutal new production. Controversial writer Christopher Marlowe's fierce and ferocious play follows Tamburlaine and his thirst for power. The crown is within his reach and nothing, not even God, can stand in his way. An ensemble company stages both parts, One and Two, over one evening. The Lazarus Theatre Company is an award winning classic theatre company, re-imagining and revitalising classic text for a contemporary audience. This production marks their third appearance at the Tristan Bates Theatre following sell-out productions of Troilus & Cressida, Coriolanus and The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary."
  • Website Links: The Lazarus Theatre Company presents Tamburlaine the Great at the Tristan Bates Theatre (now the Seven Dials Playhouse) in Covent Garden.
Fourth Monkey presents Tamburlaine Pts I & II at Jacksons Lane Theatre, London N6 - 2015

Archway, London [2015]

  • Play: Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II
  • Dates: Saturday 14 March to Saturday 21 March 2015, with Part I and Part II played on alternate nights.
  • Performance Times: Evenings at 7.30pm; Matinee Saturday 21 March at 3pm.
  • Venue: Jacksons Lane Theatre, 269a Archway Road, Highgate, London, N6 5AA [Map & Directions]. Nearest Tube: Highgate (Northern Line).
  • Tickets: Priced £12 or £10 for concessions (plus £1.95 booking fee), available online or from the Box Office (020 8340 5226).
  • Summary: Fourth Monkey presents Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Steven Green and Sarah Case. "Following their critically acclaimed sell-out Marlowe450 season to celebrate the anniversary of the writer's birth in Canterbury, Fourth Monkey return to London with their latest Christopher Marlowe offering, Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II. Set in the Mongolian Steppes, at the rise of the Mongol empire Tamburlaine, the production is co-directed by the company's artistic director Steven Green and associate Sarah Case, the production offers a visceral and contemporary interpretation delivered by Fourth Monkey's Two Year Rep actor training company."
  • Website Links: Fourth Monkey Theatre Company presents Tamburlaine the Great Part I and Tamburlaine the Great Part II at Jacksons Lane Theatre.
Tamburlaine Parts I & II by the Theatre for a New Audience in New York - 2014

New York [2014]

  • Play: Tamburlaine Parts I & II
  • Dates: Saturday 1st November to Sunday 21st December 2014.
  • Performance Times: Tuesday-Saturday Evenings: 7pm; Matinees most Saturdays & Sundays: 1pm.
  • Venue: Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217. [Map & Directions]
  • Tickets: Individual tickets $20 to $100 and season tickets available online or from the box office (866-811-411)
  • Reviews: New York Times; New York Review of Books; Wall St Journal [$]; Andie Silva (Early Modern Literary Studies); Time Out; British Theatre Guide; Steve Mentz; Exeunt Magazine; Broad Street Review; New York Theatre Review; Theater Mania; Entertainment Weekly; Shakespeare's Tribe; Brooklyn Eagle [$]; Lighting & Sound America; The Epoch Times.
  • Summary: Theatre for a New Audience present Tamburlaine Parts I & II written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Michael Boyd with John Douglas Thompson as Tamburlaine and Merritt Janson as Zenocrate. "Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine Parts I And II was last seen in New York sixty years ago. Michael Boyd, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, stages both parts of the wildly popular play that launched Christopher Marlowe's career in the late 1580s. John Douglas Thompson (Macbeth and Othello for Theatre for a New Audience) stars as Tamburlaine, the unstoppable and ferocious low-born conqueror who humbles kings and emperors, sweeping methodically across vast territories while gathering ever more strength from his driving will, his boundless self-image, and his astonishing outpouring of stunning verse. Nineteen actors play sixty roles in this magisterial yet tightly conceived epic event that chronicles Tamburlaine's rise from upstart Scythian shepherd to ruler of Persia (Part I), and then his strangely precipitous, grief-suffused fall (Part II). Shocking and awesome, repellent and fascinating in equal measure, Marlowe's hero is disturbingly modern. Edited by Michael Boyd, the two parts will be combined into one quick-moving, four-hour evening with a thirty-minute intermission."
  • Website Links: Theatre for a New Audience present Tamburlaine Parts I & II at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in New York | Interview with John Douglas Thompson | Trailer Video.
Tamburlaine the Great Part I at the American Shakespeare Center - 2011

ASC, Staunton VA [2011]

  • Play: Tamburlaine the Great Part I
  • Date: Various dates between Thursday 22 September and Saturday 26 November 2011.
  • Performance Times: Evenings at 19:30; matinees on Sundays 16 October and 20 November at 14:00.
  • Venue: Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 South Market St, Staunton, VA 24401, USA. [Map & Directions]
  • Tickets: Priced $16 to $40 available online or from the box office (540-851-1733).
  • Reviews: Shakespeareances; The Accidental Thespian.
  • Summary: The American Shakespeare Center presents Tamburlaine the Great Part I written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Jim Warren, with James Keegan as Tamburlaine, Blythe Coons as Zenocrate, Benjamin Curns as Mycetes, and René Thornton Jr as Bajazeth. "Serious Power: A shepherd conquers kingdoms in an attempt to satisfy his unquenchable ambition and prove himself worthy of the beauty he loves. Marlowe's mighty line and the box office popularity of Tamburlaine greatly influenced Shakespeare and helped usher in the golden age of English blank verse. Blending an Elizabethan Rambo with a Tarantino-style love story allows Marlowe to shock us anew with a timeless disdain for authority and awe us with brutal poetry, causing us to cheer for the charismatic tyrant on his bloody hunt for glory."
  • Website Links: The American Shakespeare Center presents Tamburlaine the Great Part I at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA | 360°View of Blackfriars Playhouse.