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A review by eb00kie
Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
3.0
When the more you mix, the more the ingredients separate - a mayonnaise fail, basically.
One way to describe this play is a collage: the beginning is a soap opera with homosexual leads, the middle is a civil war reenactment and the end is courtly drama with a whiff of "My Wife is Totally Ok with My Other Lovers" Agamemnon.
Tone-wise all over the place, but with good strong themes, complex characters and, most importantly, a plot with some twists and turns.
Here's the genius of Marlowe, and it's not as bad as it sounds, but look, there is absolutely no one designated for the audience to sympathise with, but at the same time, no one is one-dimensional or boring.
For example, theoretically, the MCs should be the king and his best friend Gaveston, just going by screentime. But they were a bit inept at using the royal power to win. At the same time antagonists were trying so hard and they kept getting back up, every time, that by the end I was actually crossing my fingers for Gaveston to die, just so they could catch a break!
I mean, screw true love and moral values, they were putting their soul into it!
Tone-deaf, absolutely irreverent to the notion of fanservice and refreshingly original.
One way to describe this play is a collage: the beginning is a soap opera with homosexual leads, the middle is a civil war reenactment and the end is courtly drama with a whiff of "My Wife is Totally Ok with My Other Lovers" Agamemnon.
Tone-wise all over the place, but with good strong themes, complex characters and, most importantly, a plot with some twists and turns.
Here's the genius of Marlowe, and it's not as bad as it sounds, but look, there is absolutely no one designated for the audience to sympathise with, but at the same time, no one is one-dimensional or boring.
For example, theoretically, the MCs should be the king and his best friend Gaveston, just going by screentime. But they were a bit inept at using the royal power to win. At the same time antagonists were trying so hard and they kept getting back up, every time, that by the end I was actually crossing my fingers for Gaveston to die, just so they could catch a break!
I mean, screw true love and moral values, they were putting their soul into it!
Tone-deaf, absolutely irreverent to the notion of fanservice and refreshingly original.