The Marlowe Society's Arts Theatre Show is the biggest show of Lent term. A professional director, enormous creative team and six weeks of rehearsals mean it's a step up from your humble Corpus Mainshow. I sat down with director Caroline Steinbeis in the Maynard Bar of the Cambridge Arts Theatre and asked her about Edward II and working in Cambridge. 

'Edward II is a play about a king who breaks all convention and pisses off his peers because he favours his lover [Piers] Gaveston over everything else," she tells me. "He effusively showers his lover with titles and money that nobody else is getting. The court, including his wife, is confronted with the question what do we do when our stability and expectation of what the future would have been, had the old king not died, suddenly goes out the window.'

“It's quite punk and it's got a real attitude”

Steinbeis's production teases out several important themes. 'Predominantly we explore how power hungry and ambitious everyone is, and how grotesque that can make you if you're that single minded about your goals.' One of the ways the creative team have explored this theme of power and authority is using the symbol of the throne. They have copied "the original coronation throne still in use today and basically blown it up. It's a huge piece.  It's quite punk and it's got a real attitude.'

I asked her if this instability had parallels to our current political situation. 'Off the back of Brexit we have a country in complete upheaval. People are trying to forge ahead with some ridiculous trigger of Article 50 when everyone knows this is bullshit. In a way the play has a very similar vibe; people push ahead without a plan. Its great to work with material which feels so incredibly relevant.'

The punk heart of the play is the character of Piers Gaveston, Edward's lover who is exiled at the start of the play. 'Gaveston is such an important character because he liberates Edward. He facilitates him to speak his mind and act in the way he wants to act. It's not a polite pairing; we've taken their provocativeness very literally.'

“We've taken their provocativeness very literally”

Importantly, the relationship between Gaveston and Edward has to be convincing but also at times fraught. What has Joe Sefton brought to the role of Edward? 'He has tremendous sensitivity as an actor. He's very open and committed. He has a great ear, he's very musical. Throughout the process he's grown and matured.'

The different motives of each character create an unstable power dynamic: an atmosphere of authoritarian angst. 'The play is about a man who wants to be left alone, wants to be with his partner, with his boyfriend, and not held accountable,' Steinbeis explains. 'That's where the crux of the play exists, because Edward says, 'I am the King and you are my subjects.' There is a very basic clash of ideology there, and Marlowe gives us all that in the text.'

Art with an agenda: bursting the Cambridge theatre bubble

The inevitable question emerges: what has it been like, as a professional director,  working with Cambridge students? Thankfully, Steinbeis's experience has been positive. 'It's been joyful. The commitment has been outstanding, and because of that I haven't treated them any differently because they're students.'

Edward II is hugely ambitious, and aspires to at once comment on the highly personal demise of an historical King, whilst at the same time speaking to our current political instability. The Arts Theatre show boasts some of the best actors in Cambridge on its cast list, but it's so much more than your average ADC Main Show. With the vision and aesthetic of Steinbeis and her creative team, Edward II is not to be missed.

Edward II runs at the Arts Theatre from 8th February - 11th February at 7:45pm with selected additional matinees