Past Marlowe Productions

The Massacre at Paris

This is an archive of past productions of Marlowe's play The Massacre at Paris (including adaptations) from 2008 onwards which have all finished. The details and review links may still be of interest. Also see our noticeboard of forthcoming Marlowe productions.

You can also read the KitMarlowe1564 synopsis of the play The Massacre at Paris.

Playbox Theatre, Warwick [2026]

Play: The Massacre at Paris
Date: Thursday 15th October to Saturday 17th October 2026.
Performance Times: Evenings at 19:00.
Venue: Playbox Theatre, The Dream Factory, Stratford Road, Warwick CV34 6LE. [Map]
Tickets: Priced £18.50 (standard), £12 (concessions) or £8 (Playbox members) available online (tel. 01926 419555).
Reviews: Culture's Coffee Blog; Elementary WhatsOn.
Summary: Playbox Theatre presents The Massacre at Paris written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Stewart McGill, with Conor Davis as the Duke of Guise, Lucy Quirk as the King of Navarre, Hayden James Mulcock as the Duke of Anjou, and Gracie Tomlin as Catherine de Medici. "Christopher Marlowe's rarely performed, politically charged drama — presented with boldness and immediacy for contemporary audiences. One of the most gripping dramas of the Elizabethan stage arrives at Playbox Theatre this autumn. Inspired by the shocking real events of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Christopher Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris is a tale of political intrigue, religious conflict and ruthless ambition. Raw, relentless and startlingly relevant, this powerful new production promises an unforgettable theatrical experience. Playbox Theatre was created in 1986 by Founding & Executive Director, Mary King. Her vision was to create an artistic environment in which all children and young people could flourish."
Website Links: Playbox Theatre presents The Massacre at Paris at the Dream Factory, Playbox's beautiful theatre in Warwick | KitMarlowe1564 synopsis of The Massacre at Paris

The Massacre at Paris in Decatur, GA - June 2025

Decatur GA [2025]

Play: The Massacre at Paris
Date: Friday 20 June to Sunday 22 June 2025
Performance Times: Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm; Sunday at 2:00pm.
Venue: Pythagoras Masonic Temple, 108 E. Ponce De Leon Ave, Decatur, GA 30030 [GoogleMaps]
Tickets: Priced $20 are available to purchase in advance online or at the box office prior to each performance.
Summary: Resurgens Theatre Company presents The Massacre at Paris written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Dr Brent Griffin. "To conclude our A Marlowe For All Seasons series, Resurgens returns this summer with scorching hot butchery and carnage - Christopher Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris! Join us as we bathe metrically in the murderous atrocities surrounding St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572. Directed by Dr. Brent Griffin, our 'original practices' production of this early modern rarity proclaims "[t]hat peril is the chiefest way to happiness", wherein ruthless ambition provides "those never dying flames, which cannot be extinguish'd but by blood."
Website Links: Resurgens Theatre Company presents The Massacre at Paris at the Pythagoras Masonic Temple in Decatur GA.

The Massacre at Paris at The Bankside Rose - 2014

The Rose on Bankside [2014]

Play: The Massacre at Paris
First Run: Tuesday 11 March to Saturday 29 March 2014.
Second Run: Tuesday 07 October to Saturday 25 October 2014.
Performance Times: Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm; Sunday matinees at 3pm.
Venue: The Rose Theatre, Bankside, 56 Park Street, London, SE1 9AS [Map]. Nearest Station: London Bridge.
Tickets: Priced £12 or £10 for concessions (Friends of The Rose, OAP, Student or Equity) available online or from the Rose Theatre Box Office (020-7261-9565).
Reviews: Peter Kirwan (UoN Bardathon); Eoin Price (Asidenotes); Steve Orman (Early Modern Literary Studies); FT [£]; What's On Stage; Stage Door; Londonist; Curtainly; Migrant Press; TrendFem; Kate in Brockley.
Summary: The Dolphin's Back presents The Massacre at Paris written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by James Wallace, with John Gregor as the Duke of Guise, Kristin Milward as Catherine de Medici, Lachlan McCall as the King of Navarre, and JamesAskill as the Duke of Anjou. "Marlowe's extraordinary, brutal and incendiary masterpiece returns to the Rose, where it was first performed in January 1593 just four months before the playwright's murder. "Religion - O Diabole!" At breakneck speed, Marlowe's last play stages twenty years of the French Wars of Religion, beginning with the marriage of the sister of catholic Charles IX of France to the protestant Henry, King of Navarre. The marriage promises to bring religious peace, but any peace is immediately shattered by the notorious 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, instigated by Catherine de Medici in league with the villainous Duke of Guise, the ultimate Marlovian over-reacher."
Programme: Interview with James Wallace | Lord Strange's Men at The Rose by Andrew Gurr | The Text by Laurie Maguire.
Website Links: The Dolphin's Back presents The Massacre at Paris at the The Rose Playhouse on Bankside | Mathew Lyons: Kit Marlowe, the Rose Playhouse and Me.

Canterbury Cathedral Crypt [2014]

Play: The Massacre at Paris
Date: Tuesday 18 March and Wednesday 19 March 2014
Performance Times: Evenings 8pm; matinee on Wednesday 19 March at 2pm
Venue: The Crypt, Canterbury Cathedral, 11 The Precincts, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2EH. [Map & Directions]
Tickets: Priced £12; £11 Concessions; £10 Marlowe Friends; £8 for Discovery Tickets, available via the Marlowe Theatre website or from the Box Office (01227 787787).
Associated Lecture: Lingering Identities: the Huguenot Past by Louis de Bernières & Jan Leeming on 18 March.
Previews: The Stage: Shakespeare's Rival Remembered | Guardian: Happy Birthday Marlowe.
Reviews: What's On Stage.
Summary: Fourth Monkey Theatre Company presents The Massacre at Paris written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by Paul Allain and Andrew Dawson, with Reuben Beau Davies as the Duke of Guise, Katie Cherry as the Duchess of Guise, and Alice Trow as Catherine de Medici. This is one of three Marlowe productions by Fourth Monkey to celebrate the 450th anniversary of his birth in his home city of Canterbury, where the repercussions of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre were only too apparent: "Refugees arrive in droves - poisoned and persecuted victims of war crimes, who flee government terror. This is Elizabethan Canterbury. Events defining Marlowe's early life echo through this butchered and bloody work, staged in the atmospheric settings of the Canterbury Cathedral Crypt."
Website Links: Fourth Monkey Theatre Company presents The Massacre at Paris in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral in association with the Marlowe Society and The University of Kent as part of the Marlowe450 celebrations [Marlowe450 Poster].
Fouth Monkey Marlowe450 Productions: Dr Faustus | The Massacre at Paris | The Jew of Malta