CAVEAT: I have worked with one of the writers, Brian-Watson Jones, in various shows over the years, including one in this Festival.
SHOW TITLE: The Final Act
PRODUCER: Tedious Brief Productions
HAILING FROM: Minnesota
SHOW DESCRIPTION: The greatest playwright of 1593 has been murdered, but there’s more at work than a simple bar brawl. This Elizabethan noir thriller will finally reveal the truth behind the death of Christopher Marlowe.
WHAT CAUGHT MY INTEREST: Tedious Brief has garnered a reputation for Elizabethan adaptations of contemporary popular culture, so I was excited to note that this seems to be a variation on their typical formula: an original story in an Elizabethan setting, overlaid with a contemporary aesthetic.
Just who do you think you are, anyway?
We’re a group of writers and actors who are huge Shakesnerds. We love the plays, we love the period, we love playing in that world. So when we had an idea that we knew needed to exist, like most companies when they first get started, we realized we had to do it ourselves. Today, well, we’re still doing that.
So what’s the big idea?
The Final Act is a noir-style Elizabethan play about the murder of Christopher Marlowe.
How did you come up with a screwy idea like that?
The same way we came up with any of our ideas. The three of us who do the writing met in a coffee shop and spitballed ideas until we found one that we would fight to create. We all still love the Shakespearean period of history, we all love the tropes of noir, and we jumped at the chance to combine the two. And after doing the historical research, and seeing how well the tropes fit the story, we knew this show needed to exist.
Why should I care?
Well, read the description again. That should make up your mind. It’s either none of the things that interest you about live theatre, or ALL of them. But if you need more? Swordfights. Femme fatales. Spy chases. And a surprising amount of historical accuracy.
Justify your show’s existence in haiku form.
A murder’d playwright
Forget it Nick: it’s Deptford
Now, the chase is on
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