Swan Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
17 August 2016 - 7 February 2017
A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets Fight Club in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s rarely performed tragicomedy.
Two best friends, knights at arms, are captured in battle and imprisoned. From their window they see a beautiful woman and both fall instantly in love with her, turning from intimate friendship to jealous rivalry in the space of a minute. One is released and goes AWOL in the woods of Athens, searching for a way to be near his beloved. When the jailer’s daughter frees the other, and follows him into the forest herself, the stage is set for absurd adventures and painful confusions in this study of the intoxication and strangeness of love.
Attributed to Fletcher and Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen is based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale.
Director Blanche McIntyre (As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe 2015) teams up with Anna Fleischle (Olivier Award winner for best set design, Hangmen 2015) to bring an intoxicating world to the Swan Theatre stage, where chauvinist men are confronted by resilient women and love is a prize in a deadly game.
Two best friends, knights at arms, are captured in battle and imprisoned. From their window they see a beautiful woman and both fall instantly in love with her, turning from intimate friendship to jealous rivalry in the space of a minute. One is released and goes AWOL in the woods of Athens, searching for a way to be near his beloved. When the jailer’s daughter frees the other, and follows him into the forest herself, the stage is set for absurd adventures and painful confusions in this study of the intoxication and strangeness of love.
Attributed to Fletcher and Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen is based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale.
Director Blanche McIntyre (As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe 2015) teams up with Anna Fleischle (Olivier Award winner for best set design, Hangmen 2015) to bring an intoxicating world to the Swan Theatre stage, where chauvinist men are confronted by resilient women and love is a prize in a deadly game.
Dates
The Two Noble Kinsmen is one of the latest of Shakespeare's plays, written in collaboration with John Fletcher. Likely written around 1613-14, the play is indirectly referenced in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (performed in October 1614) and makes reference to the Globe's fire in the Prologue which occurred in June of 1613. It wasn't printed in the First Folio of 1623, possibly due to it being a collaboration, but was entered into the Stationer's Register and published as a Quarto in 1634.Sources
As specifically referred to in the play's Prologue, The Two Noble Kinsmen is based on Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale'. The sub-plot of the Jailer's Daughter isn't within the Chaucer tale, but is has many similarities to the Ophelia story within Hamlet. The Morris dance scene within the play seems to be based on Francis Beaumont's Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, written in 1613.Synopsis
One of Shakespeare’s last plays: a comedy about cousins valiantly battling for their native city and the pursuit of a hand in marriage.On the day planned for his wedding to Hippolyta, Duke Theseus of Athens is petitioned by three queens to go to war against King Creon of Thebes, who has deprived their dead husbands of proper burial rites. In Thebes, the 'two noble kinsmen', cousins Palamon and Arcite, realise that their own hatred of Creon's tyranny must be put aside while their native city is in danger, but in spite of their valour in battle it is Theseus who is victorious.
Love at first sight
Imprisoned in Athens, the cousins catch sight of Hippolyta's sister, Emilia, and both fall instantly in love with her. Arcite is set free, but disguises himself rather than return to Thebes, while Palamon escapes with the help of the Jailer's Daughter, who loves him. Meeting each other, the kinsmen agree that mortal combat between them must decide who gets to marry Emilia, but they are discovered by Theseus. Theseus is persuaded to revoke his sentence of death and instead orders that a tournament shall decide which cousin is to be married to the indecisive Emilia and which is to lose his head.Stop reading now if you don't want to know the end of the story ...
Unrequited love
The Jailer's Daughter has been driven mad by unrequited love, but in an attempt to restore her mental health, is persuaded by her father to believe her former suitor is Palamon, and is won over by his devotion.
The tournament
Before the tournament Arcite makes a lengthy invocation to Mars, while Palamon prays to Venus and Emilia to Diana – for victory to go to the man who loves her most. Although Arcite triumphs in the fight, he is thrown from his horse before the death sentence on Palamon can be carried out, and with his last breath offers his blessing for Emilia to marry his friend.The full cast for The Two Noble Kinsmen includes: Joe Allen (Fighter), Sally Bankes (Schoolmistress), Ashley Campbell (Boss), James Corrigan (Palamon), Leander Deeny (Host/Doctor), Chris Jack (Pirithous) Lena Kaur (The Lady), Patrick Knowles (Wooer), Leon Lopez (The Trickster), Paul McEwan (Jailer), Allison McKenzie (Hippolyta), Frances McNamee (Emilia), Emma Noakes (Hecate), Danusia Samal (Jailer’s daughter), Gyuri Sarossy (Theseus), Eloise Secker (Diana), Kellie Shirley (Venus), and Jamie Wilkes (Arcite).
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