Preview :: A Play in the Time of the Perilous Plague

Summary: —————- :: Special Preview :: —————- - “Thomas Kyd in the Court of King James” - - A New Play by Christopher Marlowe - A most lamentable comedy revealing how King James I sent England’s most vile Puritans to colonise the “New World” in 1603, with two books he wrote :: “Daemonologie” or “How to Find and Burn Witches for Fun and Profit” and “The Bible”... Prologue :: Spoken by Sycorax, Celtic translator :: A man of this time and of these hours, No longer strolls amongst stalking flowers. And yet still, these children, nestled near, With electric eyes and a digitized ear, Raise raging waves against seas of dark reason, Summoning a day, a man for all seasons... On this day two friends were banished for treason. Destined for Padua on a boat in fog. They came ashore in Scotland, thinking it Prague. And how these gay lovers do echo from this beach, This untold tale no teacher will teach. Our actors will show how Christopher Marlowe, Did come to be known by more commercial names. Disguising both himself and his gay friend, Thomas Kyd, in the Court of King James. Prologue :: (con’t) Spoken By Ariel, Faerie of the Airy Mountain What demon fell from the high cliffs of hell? Submersible spheres, copper faces in tears. This ever descending dissembling liar, rebranding wealth as virtue, stars for fire. Yet those who have ears would hear a heart beat true. So smile weary souls as silence falls. Oh guardian sentry, red turncoat to hell, cry, “Hear me now spirits, come ring your bell!” I am not some thing, some dream of the white king. All players in our tale I plead now rise, conceal false face twixt false heart and false eye! Act One, Scene One (Lochlaven Island Beach, in the fog, Christopher Marlowe is passed out on the shore, Thomas Kyd holds his head in his lap.) Thomas Kyd We’ll find no breakfast here...no tea nor toast... This miserable world...this Barbary Coast... That little storm, that tempest in a teapot... A Shipwreck shore where no man set foot before. These Empty icons seem familiar, yet not... My still love, immersed in Dream, and I in thought... So much life is spent in crude contemplation, Dark reveries driven station to station... —- Dramatis Personae —- ——-:: The Players :: ——- King James VI of Scotland Princess Anne of Elsinore Castle, Denmark Prince Regent Christian of Elsinore Castle, Anne’s bother Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Courtiers of Elsinore Castle Christopher Marlowe, the writer Thomas Kyd, author of the play “Hamlet” Guy Fawkes, a revolutionary and a corporate spy Matthew Hopkins, a witch finder general Lord Strange, Master of Theatrical Arts Ingram Frizer, a spy from London Nicholas Skeres, another spy from London Robert Pooley, a third spy from London The Ghost of Mary Queen of Scots, Lochlaven Castle Lochlaven Castle Guard Sentry #1 Lochlaven Castle Guard Sentry #2 Sycorax, the macabre witch of Lochlaven Island Wood Fire Axe, her weird sister and the third twin, Miss Tiffany in Case of Emergency Break Glass Young Caliban, demon son of Sycorax Ariel, a Faerie and a Sprite Musique Mécanique par le Théâtre Électrique :: "The Rings of Akhaten" by Murray Gold