The COMPANY of PLAYERS
A member of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain

The School Of Night
by Peter Whelan
21st-29th January 2005
Directed by Jan Palmer-Sayer

With its title taken from a phrase in Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare, The School of Night examines the 16th-century intellectual circle that counted Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd and Sir Walter Raleigh as members. The play investigates the mystery surrounding Marlowe's death in 1593 against the backdrop of a politically and religiously divided England. Was he really killed in a barroom brawl, as the history books say? Or do the rumours of espionage, atheism, and homosexuality hint at something more complicated in his ultimate undoing?

First performed in The Other Place at Stratford upon Avon and then at the RSC's Pit Theatre in London during 1992-1993.

Synopsis by Josh Jacobson