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At Diana's Home, Marlowe's 'Dido' Is the Queen

by Zoe Strimpel
Sun, 3 Feb 2008 at 8:29 PM

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Hooray! Performances of Christopher Marlowe's "Dido, Queen of Carthage" began Friday at Kensington Palace. This is the first time the palace, once Princess Diana's home, has been used as a theater. The show is staged by Angels in the Architecture, a company that puts on classics in wonderfully unexpected places. "Dido" unfurls over 12 rooms of the State Apartments, with space for only 100 audience members each night. In keeping with a theatrical style that seems to be in vogue right now (think of Punchdrunk's hugely successful, sprawling and interactive "The Masque of the Red Death"), the audience will have to follow the cast through the rooms.

This would seem an ingenious way to bring architecture to life, to literally allow people to experience it. In this case, viewers will get to see hidden nooks and crannies of the palace, as well as a secret passage. And the aged, history-crammed grandeur of a royal palace can only suit the kind of plays that will be performed here. The director of Kensington Palace, Nigel Arch, said: "The nice thing about this production is the play is about love, power and human emotions and how they are changed or warped by experience. That's what went on in the 18th century, when this was a center of government and politics. It's a very nice fit. It's a very theatrical space."

Dido is a queen who falls in love, to disastrous ends. But, according to the co-founder of Angels, Sarah Thom (who also plays Dido), there is no need to overstate the parallels with Diana; that would just be tacky.

"Obviously there are resonances," Ms. Thom said, "but we're not in any way saying that Dido is Diana, although the name is slightly close, I suppose."

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