Do3: 16 Sept - Tamburlaine, 8.30pm

[french frank]

A new production of Christopher Marlowe's 16th century play about the growth to tyrannical power of a Scythian shepherd. Tamburlaine is a classic drama said to have changed the course of British drama and to have influenced the young Shakespeare. This is the first in a series of three plays from Radio 3 which portray the ruthlessness and dilemmas of absolute rule.

Tamburlaine ..... Con O'Neill
Mycetes, King of Persia ..... Oliver Ford Davis
Cosroe ..... Kenneth Cranham

What Wiki has to say about the play.

[aeolium]

I am very much looking forward to this, as an admirer of Marlowe's "mighty line". As the production is compressing two long plays into two hours, much will have to be omitted but I hope it will give a flavour of Marlowe's poetry. No doubt one of the scenes omitted will be that involving the burning of certain books....

Do I know Con O'Neill as a radio actor (what else has he featured in)?

[french frank]

Do I know Con O'Neill as a radio actor (what else has he featured in)?

I can't see any mention of radio parts anywhere. It's mainly stage, TV and film. I didn't know him at all ...

[Mobson7]

Post-proms, it is good to see Drama on 3 back with a new production directed by Peter Kavanagh, and which has original music composed and performed by Nicolai Abrahamsen.....the first of three in a series from Radio 3 which portray the ruthlessness and dilemmas of absolute rule. What's next I wonder!

[Richard Tarleton]

What's next I wonder!

Just as long as it's not "Tamerlane - the musical" by GF Handel - worst night ever in the opera house.....

[DracoM]

So what happened to Tamburlaine Pt 2?

[aeolium]

So what happened to Tamburlaine Pt 2?

Left for another day, presumably? I suppose it was thought there would be too much left out if the two parts were compressed into two hours (the two parts of Goethe's Faust which they broadcast some years back required a four-hour production IIRC).

I thought this was disappointing, mainly due to the weak characterisation and poor diction of Con O'Neill as Tamburlaine. Far from coming across as a terrifying figure, the Scourge of God, he didn't seem to me to represent a scourge of anything except possibly blank verse. There were good performances, often in minor roles, including Danny Sapani as Bajazeth, Paul Stonehouse as Ortygius and Edward de Souza as the Sultan, but there was too much shouting and chopped-up verse (it didn't help that explanatory words or phrases were added to lines breaking up the rhythm). The verse is uneven in quality but there were from time to time glimpses of its resonance and striking imagery.

It must have been an extraordinary experience to see this play for the first time in 1587, with its powerful language, its savagery, its unashamed contempt for religion (which makes it, or at least part 2, still a dangerous work to perform today), its exoticism. How would Elizabeth I, had she seen it, have reacted to the portrayal of the violent overthrow of several monarchs by a lowly shepherd, or the imprecations against God, or the merciless dispatch of the Damascene virgins sent to sue for peace? And there are parts which come across as curiously modern in style: the episode where Bajazeth kills himself by smashing his head against his cage is followed by a disjointed, deranged, jerky speech by Zabina in which the blank verse is shattered into fragments before she, too, kills herself.

So two cheers for letting us hear the work in performance, but a disappointment overall.

[DracoM]

Agree with a lot of that. Wasn't quite so offended by Con O'Neill's voice as aeolium, but there was SO much shouting that when they needed to increase the intensity, they just shouted me into laughter at how OTT it all was, and I fear Kenneth Cranham's death of Cosroe speech, more and more strangulated and higher and higher pitched tipped into being just hysterically funny, it got so far over the top as to be way past John Cleese and Fawlty Towers territory.

It was as said above, an avalanche of tumultuous richness, and Marlowe gave every indication of not having the Shakespearean tact and acuity, but just let it go. Magnificent and incendiary, and violent against every conceivable code of justice, religion, mercy etc. Wild, wild guy! Less was deffo not more for your man Marlowe, and on;y more, more and more was enough.

I did feel that Tamburlaine as CM has him is actually more calculating than O'Neill played it, possibly a bit more reflective and his moods a trifle less red-top / cartoon like than portrayed. The result was that there was very little light and shade in the production, interminable battles and always the sound of drumming hooves behind practically everything. However, I did like the Zabina - fine warm voice and some range, while Zenocrate just sounded sillier and more and more little girl as the show went on. OK, it's an utterly and totally thankless part being just the love-interest and the obligatory bit of totty, but they could have played her as more deeply outraged than just rather upset by the appalling moral excess of the killing of the Syrian Virgins.

Yes, fine to have it, a brave try, BUT without pt 2, you lose the sense of Marlowe's trajectory. Tamburlaine does not end up untouchably triumphant as this production seemed to suggest.

[arthurlorenzo]

I so disagree with these comments I found it an exhilarating listen, a beautiful production. I loved the energy of the performances...and for me Con O'Neill made a refreshing and real tyrant! Overall, what made it most striking were the resonances with the Middle East.

[french frank]

Hello arthurlorenzo - welcome to the forum

I recorded the play but still haven't found time to listen to it. I was discouraged by the comments from the regulars but I'll try to find time to see which side I agree with!