DIE FEL OMSTREDE KROON VAN EDWARD II EN GAVESTON. By Tom Lanoye. Directed, translated and designed by Marthinus Basson. Baxter Flipside.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
This is a chunky piece of theatre. It is a free reworking of Christopher Marlowe’s The Troublesome and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. Tom Lanoye focusses on the passionate and forbidden relationship between Edward (later crowned as Edward II) and Gaveston, his lover and landlord. It is a ‘history-always-repeats’ tale, and the tragedy of love and politics is revealed as inevitable.
What definitely gets an update in this text is the exposition on stage of this complicated homosexual relationship. At the time of Marlowe this would have been a crime punishable by death. Here, this relationship – obsessive, explosive, contradictory, cyclonic, desperate, naïve, bitter, causes an avalanche of inevitable destruction, affecting all in its wake.
The piece starts with Edward’s father on his deathbed, in high grotesque, belittling form. He diminishes his son and predicts his inability to manage the throne in the most vicious and cruel way. And then everything he says comes true. It’s horrible. And relevant. And deeply painful to watch.
Personal becomes political
Intergenerational trauma is repeated. The personal becomes political and the pendulum swings backwards and forwards. Women (Isabella, Edward’s long-suffering wife) get the short end of this stick when it comes to power and influence, and Isabella’s humiliation is matched by her desperate clinginess. Father-son relationships are flipped, shredded, mended and tortured. Power is an illusion, mortality certain, betrayal inevitable. It’s a Game of Thrones savage world.
All the performances are excellent and powerful, but it is Edwin van der Walt as Edward II who creates and sustains this agonizing world with perfection. Every moment of his precisely crafted performance is mind blowing. Rolanda Marais, Beer Adriaanse, Caleb Payne, Andre Roothman and Wilhelm van der Walt do total justice to their characters and the story.
Marthinus’s simple, modern design is beautiful to look at but terrifying to manage. It’s a set that needed a bigger budget for better execution.
The play, like its title, is long, but the language, the emotions, the drama all hold it and sustain it. Powerful, relevant theatre.
What: Die Fel Omstrede Kroon van Edward II en Gaveston
Where and when: Baxter Flipside from 16 to 27 January 2024
Tickets: Webtickets
WS
