Peter Whelan
London: Josef Weinberger Plays, 1992
Shakespeare appears in this play disguised as Tom Stone, an actor and admirer of Christopher Marlowe—but is he, like Marlowe, perhaps also a spy? The action, which takes place in 1592 and 1593, centers around Marlowe, his genius, and his untimely death. It also veers into Marlovian theories of Shakespearian authorship. The School of Night is presented as a secret society of sceptics to which Sir Walter Raleigh, Walsingham, and Marlowe belonged. Tom Stone/Shakespeare’s questions about the group both intrigue Marlowe and raise his suspicions about this actor with pretensions (and talent) to be a worthy rival or perhaps a mouthpiece for Marlowe’s “posthumous” plays. -VH