| You never know what your spring-cleaning will turn up. The University of Calgary has discovered a forgotten, 350-year-old play in its archives, which will receive its first production since the 17th century this weekend at Craigie Hall.
The anonymous manuscript, conditionally titled Marriage Upon Marriage, had languished until recently in the deepest recesses of MacKimmie Library on the U of C campus.
"We know that an English librarian, Edgar Osborne, purchased the play in 1947 at a sale in Nottinghamshire," says Mary Polito, an associate professor in the English department. "Osborne then donated the play, along with almost 3,000 other rare books and manuscripts, to the Toronto Public Library in 1949. The University of Calgary purchased the play along with about 30 items from the Osborne collection in 1971. While other U of C scholars and scholars from elsewhere have studied various items from the Osborne collection, it just happened that nobody took up the project of figuring out the mystery of the play manuscript until 2004."
And with the mystery of how the play arrived in Calgary solved, our attention turns to the question of whether this could actually be a long-lost work of William Shakespeare – a prospect that would shake the very roots of English literature across the world.
"No, we’re quite certain this is no Shakespeare play," says Polito, putting the damper on that idea. "It’s good, but it’s not that good. Besides, there are cultural references that tell us this play was written after 1616, when Shakespeare died. However, our research points more and more to someone who was a frequent playgoer in London when Shakespeare wrote and who learned from that model of comedy."
Although not written by the Bard, this five-act comedy, which follows the trials and tribulations of a justice of the peace named Master Thrifty, will have its day of glory this weekend with drama students performing it in the tradition of theatre during Shakespeare’s day.
"The play is what our director, Barry Yzereef, likes to call instant theatre: ‘just add water and stir,’" says English graduate student Andrew Bretz, who is serving as the play’s dramaturge. "The design philosophy of the whole thing has been to emphasize simplicity. As the play very well may have been produced as a manor-house theatrical, this sense of paring down and indicating rather than directly displaying was in keeping with the tone of the script. We have a bare set with two flats at the back and a few boxes that can double as chairs. All of the actors have provided their own costumes; the costumes are thus modern dress yet indicative of the status and wealth of the characters in question."
The production will be part of a day-long symposium on the research activities surrounding the play, which takes place Saturday, April 9 at the U of C. Hosted by the Medieval and Renaissance Cultural Studies Research Group in the Faculty of Humanities, it will include a keynote address by Margaret Jane Kidnie, associate professor of English at the University of Western Ontario, who is an expert on the history of early play manuscripts.
The play symposium is open to everyone, but a $10 registration fee is required. To register, e-mail Mary Polito at polito@ucalgary.ca. Marriage Upon Marriage will also receive performances on Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 at Craigie Hall. For more information, call 220-8177. |
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