Why BARABAS?

So why BARABAS, The Jew of Malta?I think it’s because people are a little bit scared of it.Marlowe as a writer, and as a person, is ‘difficult’. The play is a challenge. It’s not easy.But there’s something about it...It is both dangerous and tremendously funny. It runs at a cracking pace. It is wild. It is naughty - very. It was one of the most performed plays of its time. Whenever staged, it made its audience laugh. By laughing, audiences are drawn in to the appalling web of intrigue that Barabas, the main character, generates - and this laughter, in a way, condones the nasty side of the tale.The play exposes much about how cruel humans can be towards each other. It also shows us how loving they can be. It’s an untidy mix. There is no moral stance – it simply exposes endless uncertainty about who is right and who is wrong.Marlowe shows us a messy world where love, death, fighting and war are unremittingly regular events just as they are today. But violent acts are also part of the fun.And there’s a strange connection between Malta – where the play is set – and Cornwall. Like Malta, Cornwall is an important staging post for communications, has a strong sense of its own identity and is a home to people from all walks of life.Like Cornwall, Malta is a place people fall in love with and return to. Both sit on a fault-line of cultures. In Malta there are links to Spain, Turkey, Africa, and Italy. ‘Mediterranean’ means ‘to link cultures’. Both places have an island culture. Both places, as a consequence, look outwardly.Above all other plays of the time this one is a celebration of life. It provides a spectacular but also a sensitive meeting place for audience and performers to find out new things about the world.Whilst it asks difficult questions about the world we live in, it does so in such a way that is charming, mischievous, and utterly irreverent.You may be surprised by what you discover…