The Two Noble Kinsmen
Written by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare
Directed by Randy Reyes
in the Babcock Theatre
April 7-15, 2017

For The Two Noble Kinsmen, Shakespeare and his co-writer, John Fletcher, reached back to medieval times—to “The Knight’s Tale” from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—for their story of obsessive, competitive attraction for a woman spied from a jail cell by two aristocratic cousins captured in battle. From a remove of 139 years, Shakespeare and Fletcher questioned the more straightforwardly chivalric tale Chaucer’s Knight told. The Two Noble Kinsmen asks: Do the rules of honor ennoble or debase? What effect does it have on a woman to be “won” without consulting her? The playwrights added a memorable character not found in Chaucer, the Jailer’s Daughter, to further explore their themes of obsession and its effects. Two cousins, Palamon and Arcite are captured while fighting for Thebes against Athens. While imprisoned, they find themselves attracted to Emilia, who is the sister of Hippolyta, wife of Theseus. The Two Noble Kinsmen is one of 39 plays to be translated and adapted for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s three-year Play On! project.

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