RSC rethinks Tamburlaine for modern audience

Published: 5 June 2018
Reporter: Steve Orme

“Urgent play for our time”: Michael Boyd
Returning to the RSC: Jude Owusu

Former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd has adapted the original two parts of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine into one play for Stratford’s Swan theatre.

The show was originally staged in New York for Theater For a New Audience (TFANA) in 2014. Boyd, who was head of the RSC from 2002 until 2012, will also direct.

Boyd said, “we had a lot of success with Tamburlaine in New York, so it wasn’t a straightforward decision to revisit the play for the RSC. But in the end I felt that the world and our understanding of the nature of tyranny have changed so much since 2014 that we will have no choice but to reread the play anew for a contemporary audience.

“We’re living now through a time when angry rhetoric and determined, self-dramatising men hold increasing sway over our lives. The received wisdoms of western liberal democracy can look weak and even moribund when faced with the strong men of the American, Russian and Chinese right. In this context Tamburlaine seems to be an urgent play for our time.”

The title role is played by Jude Owusu. He appeared as Lopakhin in Boyd’s production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at Bristol Old Vic earlier in 2018. He was previously at the RSC in 2012/13 when he played Cinna the poet in Gregory Doran’s Julius Caesar.

The cast of Tamburlaine also includes Salman Akhtar (Magnetes / Capolin / Amyras), Sagar I M Arya (Bajazeth / Trebizon), Raj Bajaj (Ceneus / Argier / Calyphas), Shamia Chalabi (Persian courtier), James Clyde (Menaphon / Morocco / Jerusalem), Anton Cross (Persian courtier / Bajazeth Lord / soldier / Celebinus), Ralph Davis (Agydas / Arabia / Orcanes), Ross Green (Ortygius / Tunis / Captain), Mark Hadfied (Mycetes / Soldan / Almeda / Amasia), Zainab Hasan (Anippe / Olympia), Naveed Khan (soldier), Debbie Korley (Zabina / Soria), Rosy McEwen (Zenocrate / Callapine), Sam Pay (soldier), Riad L Richie (Usumcasane), David Rubin (Techelles), Vivienne Smith (Ebea / first virgin), David Sturzaker (Cosroe / Fez / Sigismund / governor of Babylon),Yasmin Taheri (second virgin), James Tucker (Meander / Basso / governor of Damascus / Baldwin / Perdicas) and Edmund Wiseman (Theridamas).

Set and costumes are designed by Tom Piper, previously associate designer at the RSC where he collaborated on designing more than 30 of Boyd’s shows and won an Olivier award for the design of the Histories cycle.

Lighting is by Colin Grenfell with sound by Claire Windsor and music by James Jones. Movement is by Liz Ranken and fights are by Terry King.

Tamburlaine plays in the Swan Theatre, Stratford from Thursday 16 August until Saturday 1 December. Press night will be Thursday 23 August.

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