TRUMPURLAINE THE GREAT - SYDNEY FRINGE - 2025
WRITER/DIRECTOR’S NOTE
JAMES HARTLEY
My interest with Christopher Marlowe began back in middle school when I read a Terry Deary book on Shakespeare with a short aside on Marlowe describing him as possibly a spy and dying mysteriously.
JAMES HARTLEY - DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
James (he/him) is an award winning director, writer, and actor of theatre and film. He was born in Western Sydney, grew up in the Philippines, and is of Malay-Chinese and Australian-Scottish descent. He is neurodiverse (autism spectrum disorder level 1) and has a mental disability (schizo-affective disorder).
In 2013 he won Best Director at Short+Sweet Sydney, the largest short play festival in the world. Through the theatre company he created, the Upper Crass Theatre Company, he has directed six productions of new Australian writing; Transcendent Love will be his seventh. As a director, career highlights include Death in the Pantheon (which he also wrote) at Flight Path Theatre and Fragments by Maura Pierlot at Pioneer Theatre. He has also directed or written scenes for Slanted Theatre, Wise Words, Shakespeare by Night, and Senseless & Fitz.
James also hosts and produces the Upper Crass Players improv troupe who have been regularly performing together since 2016. Three of their members won Impro Australia’s Scriptless Cup in 2018. James has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Film Studies and a Certificate IV in Screen and Media.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE - WRITER
Christopher was born in 1564 in Canterbury, England. In 1587, the Privy Council intervened with his university in order to ensure he was awarded his Master of Arts degree citing his ‘faithful dealing’ and ‘good service’ to the Queen which some scholars have suggested indicates he worked as a government spy.
Tamburlaine the Great Part I was his first play to be performed regularly on the English stage from 1587. Records of audience attendance indicate that it was immensely popular, so much so that Marlowe wrote a sequel. His plays are renowned for their hyperbolic language and engagement with subversive elements such as atheism and the occult (Doctor Faustus) and homosexuality (Edward II).
Marlowe was massively influential on the playwrights of his time, notably his colleague William Shakespeare, although contemporary productions of his work are rare.