Tamburlaine - Marlowe - Con O’Neill - Oliver Ford Davis - Subtitles - 2012 - Restored 2025 - 4K

Description

SN ARCHIVES - Elizabethan Playwrights Series - Educational Programme - Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) wrote Tamburlaine the Great in two parts, first performed around 1587-1588. The play charts the rise of a Scythian shepherd, Tamburlaine, from humble beginnings to a conqueror of Persia and much of Asia, through ruthless ambition, mastery of power, and a disregard for conventional moral limits. Tamburlaine is a work of epic proportion: its blank verse brings a new seriousness to English drama, its scale and poetic rhetoric demand attention, and its themes—ambition, tyranny, war, fortune—pose uncomfortable questions about the nature of leadership. The character of Tamburlaine is both hero and despot, inspiring awe but committing horrors; Marlowe does not spare him, even as he invites fascination. Over time, Tamburlaine has come to be seen as a foundational text in Elizabethan drama, influencing Shakespeare and others in how to present force, ambition, and the interplay between personal will and political destiny. While the play can be celebrated for its linguistic daring, it also unsettles: the brutality and the moral cost of conquest, the instability of power, and the vulnerability of those defeated. It invites reflection on how unrestrained ambition can corrupt not just the vanquished but the victor; how tyranny springs from aspiration; and how poetic power can both elevate and unsettle. Note on the BBC Radio 3 broadcast, 16 September 2012: This adaptation for BBC Radio 3’s Drama on 3, directed by Peter Kavanagh, presents Tamburlaine the Great with a full cast including: Tamburlaine – Con O’Neill Mycetes, King of Persia – Oliver Ford Davis Cosroe – Kenneth Cranham Techelles – Shaun Prendergast Theridamas – Ewan Bailey Zenocrate – Susie Riddell Zabina – Noma Dumezweni Bajazeth – Danny Sapani Agydas – Joseph Kloska Sultan – Edward de Souza Usumcasane – Don Gilet Ortygius – Paul Stonehouse Meander – Patrick Brennan Menaphon – Bob Blythe King of Morocco – Patrice Naiambana Anippe – Stephanie Racine Ebea – Eleano