THEA 301 Company presents
The Two Noble Kinsmen
By William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
A romantic (tragi)comedy with swords
Directed by Dr Lori Leigh
A love to fight for. A love to drive you mad. A daughter lost in the woods. An imperfect win.
Victoria University of Wellington’s THEA 301 tackle Jacobean tragicomedy in the Wellington premiere of Shakespeare and
Fletcher’s rarely performed The Two Noble Kinsmen.
This little known Shakespeare play is based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale. Two cousins, Palamon and Arcite, fall in love at first sight with the fair lady Emilia. The pair’s friendship is
tested when it is decided they must fight to the death for the love of Emilia. Meanwhile the daughter of a Jailer falls
in love with one of the cousins, Palamon, but loses herself in the woods in the fight to allure her man. In the end one
man gets his bride, but is there really a winner?
The director, Lori Leigh, asserts that “The Two Noble Kinsmen is a gorgeous play. Received ‘with great applause’ as it states on the title page of the quarto, the play is
Shakespeare and Fletcher’s coming-of-age postmodern fairy tale of friendship, rivalry, and heart-breaking love in its
various forms.”
The Two Noble Kinsmen will be the graduating production for many of the 21 cast members at Victoria University. This group of 300-level
theatre students have spent the trimester studying Shakespearean staging conventions, verse speaking, and dramaturgy.
“The research and now the rehearsals for this show have been long and hard,” says company member Charlotte Pleasants,
who plays First Queen. ”But, because we’ve put in (and are still putting in) that effort till 10 o’clock at night, we
all have confidence that it will result in a truly fantastic piece of theatre.”
This production of The Two Noble Kinsmen will be part of Shakespeare’s Globe Centre New Zealand’s 2014 Shakespeare Lives, a celebration of the 450th anniversary
of Shakespeare’s birth including performances of the entire canon filmed for YouTube.
Come join us for an evening filled with knights, sword-fights, Amazons, and our own special spin on Morris Dancing.
7 – 11th October 7pm.
Studio 77, 77 Fairlie Terrace, Kelburn.
$8 unwaged, $15 Waged.
Bookings: theatre@vuw.ac.nz, 04 4635359