| What: II by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe Adaption: By Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer from Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II Performers: Marcel Meyer as Edward II and Matthew Baldwin as Richard II Original score and soundscape: Charl-Johan Lingenfelder Set and costume design: Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer Direction: Fred Abrahamse When: July 23-25, 2026 Where: Artscape Arena, Cape Town Bookings: Webtickets |
Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer’s II is on in Cape Town, in the Artscape Arena, Cape Town. The play opened tonight, July 23 and runs until July 25. It is a hectic existential trip. I did not walk out. I reeled out, saddened by this grief and anguish drenched play and the Kings in our midst who wrecking our world. Same-same through the ages. John Woodward, put it brilliantly tonight, as we stood chatting in the carpark at Artscape:”Egregiously existential”. Thank you John Woodward, polymath extraordinaire, Renaissance Person.
II is a bricolage created by Abrahamse and Meyer who have adapted aspects of William Shakespeare Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II Christopher Marlowe into a play. Marcel Meyer plays Edward II and Matthew Baldwin plays Richard II. The play is laced with quotes and references to other works by the Bard and Marlowe. They were contemporaries the hotties of the time. Marlowe was murdered at the age of 29. In this play they face off with each other, in conversation, in grief.
Abrahamse and Meyer foreground the protagonists – the fictionalised kings in the plays – and the real people that they were based on – as “queer dramas” not just “political tragedies”. [See excellent programme]. This is evidenced through the embrace and intertwining of male bodies, flesh, costumes which cross gender and time and through a utterly beautiful and sensual interplay between the two Kings, connecting and bonding, embracing, through their stories.
There is the cutting line from Richard II: “Let us sit on the ground and tell sad stories about the death of kings”. And they do. Sexual yearning, desire to be one’s true self, is very much part of the narrative and tenderly portrayed through use of Japanese Noh aesthetic but beyond sexuality, II is a devastating take on rulers who screw up – through greed, vanity, social pressures, messed up self-image and so on. Of course, there is a lot more. I am being brief. It is late and I want to get this out.
Death transcends royalty, privilege, entitlement. From II: “All places are alike, and every earth is fit for burial” – Marlowe, Edward II . In the end, love and to be loved, cared for, accepted, cherished -is what makes it all worthwhile. The play ends with: “Make me immortal with a kiss”, from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.’
II is not easy theatre. It demands that we listen and reflect. The language by Marlowe and Shakespeare is sublime, beautiful at one moment and raw and horrible at other times. I laughed once – when Richard II says: “Say that again”, to Bullingbrook. Yes, say that again, so we can mull over these wise words. It is a play that makes one want to dive into Marlowe and Shakespeare. It is a very short run and this is a quickie review to urge people to go and see this play which has received accolades on the international circuit. Tonight was sold out. Book to see this egregiously existential piece of theatre.
✳ Matthew Baldwin as Richard II and Marcel Meyer as Edward II in II by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, adapted by Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer from Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II, Artscape Arena, Cape Town, July 23-25, 2026. Pic: Fiona McPherson. Supplied.
