Members of the English department will step out of the classroom and into the spotlight this week when they present a staged reading of the Renaissance play, "Dido, Queen of Carthage" by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St.
The faculty will assume the guises of gods, goddesses and other mythological figures in the play, which is based on Virgil's "Aeneid." In the story, the Trojan war hero Aeneas, who is leading a handful of survivors to a new home after being driven from Troy, is shipwrecked near the city of Carthage. There he has a love affair with the city's queen, Dido, before leaving her to continue his journey to Italy, where he has been promised a new kingdom. Unlike Virgil's epic, Marlowe's play is told from Dido's point of view, explains Murray Biggs, associate professor adjunct of English and theater studies, who is coproducing the play with Sara Suleri Goodyear, professor of English. "It tells, from Dido's perspective, what it is like to be in love and what it is like to be left with that love at the end of the play," says Professor Biggs.
It is unusual for faculty members to take part in dramatic productions -- much less mount them, admits Professor Biggs, who had a role in a staged reading of "Comus" at Yale nearly a decade ago.
Yet, it was that production of "Comus" that inspired Professors Suleri Goodyear and Biggs to stage "Dido." "The underarching idea," says Professor Biggs, "is that this will be the first in a series of readings of plays that are less well-known but that deserve to be aired." While there have been numerous productions of Marlowe's plays "Doctor Faustus," "Edward II" and "The Jew of Malta," notes Professor Biggs, "We think that 'Dido' is a most underrated play." Producing this play also gives the faculty members an opportunity for some intradepartmental interaction, adds Professor Biggs. He notes that, with the exception of two undergraduates, "the English department is fielding essentially the whole team" of cast members.
The cast will don "stylized" costumes for the staged reading. Heading the cast, in the role of Dido, will be Professor Suleri Goodyear, while the part of Aeneas will be played by Assistant Professor Ian Baucom. Dido's sister Anna will be portrayed by Assistant Professor Laura King, and the role of the queen's luckless suitor Iarbas will be performed by Professor Lawrence Manley. Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor of English and Comparative Literature, will appear in roles both human and divine: as Achates, Aeneas' trusted counsellor, and as Jupiter, king of the gods; similarly, the roles of Juno, Jupiter's heavenly but disgruntled consort, and Dido's nurse will be performed by Professor Linda Peterson, who chairs the English department. Venus, the goddess of love and Aeneas' mother, will be portrayed by Professor Vera Kutzkinski, while Erick Mengwall '97 will be both speaking and singing in the role of Cupid, Venus' impish son. Rounding out the cast will be Matt Shakman '97 as Aeneas' young son, Ascanius, and Yale College Dean Richard A. Brodhead, the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English, as the winged god Hermes in a voice-over.
"Dido, Queen of Carthage" is expected to run 90 minutes without intermission. Admission to the reading and to the museum is free.