Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\ufeffTwo coffins centre stage, two dead monarchs, two sons pitched into tragedy. Both of the RSC\u2019s major new productions begin with funereal solemnity: Hamlet (in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre) starts with a burial at sea; Edward II (in the Swan Theatre) opens with the dead king lying in state. Audience members are even invited to file around the coffin, as they did with the late Elizabeth II.But beneath the pomp and ceremony \u2014 in both plays \u2014 seethes murderous discontent. In Edward II that will end with a hideous regicide in a cell swamped with sewage \u2014 an atrocity that makes a mockery of those initial displays of civility. Trimmed down to 100 minutes, Daniel Raggett\u2019s rare revival of Marlowe\u2019s classic (the first at the RSC for 35 years) has the slick velocity of a contemporary thriller, putting the play\u2019s queer love and vicious homophobia squarely centre stage.It\u2019s chilling: a stark account of surging prejudice and naked self-interest and of the speed with which brutality can take hold. It\u2019s also sobering: a 16th-century tragedy about a 14th-century king that asks uncomfortable questions about prejudice in today\u2019s world. At its centre is a riveting performance from Daniel Evans, the RSC\u2019s joint artistic director.\u00a0Evans\u2019s Edward begins as deeply alienated and fatally truculent. At his father\u2019s funeral he bristles, his stiff military uniform seeming to hang heavy upon him. His first thought on accession is to recall his lover, Gaveston, banished by the old king, and to deluge him in gifts and titles. One of Evans\u2019s skills is to suggest that, had his Edward been allowed to be himself \u2014 been allowed to love whom he loved \u2014 he might have made a shrewder leader. As it is, he realises too late how easily his adoration of Gaveston (who, in Eloka Ivo\u2019s performance, returns that affection) is exploited by peers on the make.And, while snobbery plays a part in the nobles\u2019 plots to destroy the lower-born Gaveston, the focus of this staging is homophobia. It\u2019s queer love as much as sex that rattles them; they recoil as Edward, transported by joy, clings to Gaveston. There\u2019s a brutal, violent assertion of a certain sort of masculinity, which finds its nadir in the murder of Edward \u2014 as ugly a display of homophobic hatred as one can imagine and carried out unsparingly here.But the play is also a study in flawed leadership and in the corrupting nature of power. Evans offers a rich and complex portrayal of Edward: brittle, stubborn and rash at the outset, he acquires a moving wisdom in his imprisonment. Meanwhile, the more reasonable of the peers reel as Enzo Cilenti\u2019s thuggish Mortimer carves his way towards the top.There\u2019s a cost to the cuts: some gear-changes feel very abrupt and there is little sense of a wider society or the impact of the chaos at court. But this stark staging, powerfully sculpted by Tim Lutkin\u2019s dramatic lighting, offers an unflinching account of prejudice and its proximity to the surface. It\u2019s eloquently expressed in Leslie Travers\u2019 set: beneath that splendid dais on which the old king\u2019s coffin was displayed lurks the filthy pit in which Edward will die.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606To April 5, rsc.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\ufeffTwo coffins centre stage, two dead monarchs, two sons pitched into tragedy. Both of the RSC\u2019s major new productions begin with funereal solemnity: Hamlet (in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-232459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232461,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232459\/revisions\/232461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}