Much Ado About Something

This documentary movie does not pretend to provide definitive answers to the many questions and mysteries which surround the plays and poems that have been attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford. What it does focus on, however, is the possible role played by Shakespeare's brilliant contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, in the writing of some of these works.

One of my criticisms of the presentation of subject material in this movie is that it dwells unduly on the theory that Marlowe survived his reported death on May 30, 1593, and subsequently wrote most of the works anonymously while living on the continent. This would have been facilitated by his mastery of the Latin languages. According to the theory, all of the works were sent back to England and prepared for the stage by Shakespeare (and/or perhaps others) and eventually published under Shakespeare's name - some seven years after his death.

The problem with this theory is that there is no direct evidence of Marlowe's survival beyond 1593. There is, however, circumstantial evidence that all is not as it appears on the surface. This is based largely on a convincing demonstration, by the late scholar Dr Leslie Hotson in one of his books, of gross irregularities and inconsistencies in the original coroner's report of Marlowe's death. Notwithstanding this fact, there exist alternative hypotheses which would help to explain the premature exit of Marlowe from the London literary scene in 1593.

What I found disappointing was the omission of any discussion about the possibility that the prolific Marlowe actually died in 1593 and that some of his earlier works might have been revised, and perhaps completed, by Shakespeare. Such a scenario is not at all implausible. It has been demonstrated recently by several scholars that some of the Shakesperean canon exhibits more than one distinct writing style, suggestive of co-authorship. Based on their literary and stylistic analysis, the following plays appear to be co-authored (the suggested co-authors' names are in brackets):

Titus Andronicus (Peele and/or Marlowe); Pericles (Wilkins); Timon of Athens (Middleton); King John (Marlowe); Richard 2 (Marlowe); Richard 3 (Marlowe); Henry 4, Pt 2 (Marlowe); Henry 5 (Marlowe); Henry 6, Pt 1 (at least 3 of the "university wits"); Henry 6, Pt 2 (Marlowe); Henry 6, Pt 3 (Marlowe); Henry 8 (Fletcher); Edward 3 (Marlowe and/or Peele); Macbeth (Middleton); Sir Thomas More (Munday, Heywood, Chettle, Dekker, Kyd)

The remaining issues to be resolved include (a) which of these works might have been the outcome of active collaboration with Shakespeare, and (b) which were revised, extended and completed versions of other authors' works.

"Much Ado About Something" is a fascinating documentary about the debate over who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Australian Michael Rubbo treats his film like a mystery, feeding us clues and expounding on the various theories that come to light over the course of his investigation. "Much Ado" is also frequently quite funny, as it seems just about everybody involved in the debate is rather on the eccentric side, with those making the case for Christopher Marlowe the most adamant about it.

If you've ever harbored doubts that a largely unschooled Elizabethan actor-manager could have written many of the greatest works in the English language, then this film is for you.

Being a devotee of the late writer-historian Calvin Hoffman and owner of his impressive out-of-print book, "The Murder of the Man Who was Shakespeare," I found this documentary to be of mixed quality.

Instead of building the case from the ground up, this docu began with superficial bits and pieces, and continued this approach through almost half of its duration.

In attempting to avoid a standard "talking head interview" approach and to keep things moving, the director apparently asked interviewees to go about their normal routines while being photographed.

Thus, we have people trying to make definitive statements on Shakespeare and Marlowe while digging with a shovel, eating a meal, doing office work, and driving a car. There was constant cross-cutting editing, resulting in various snatches of "pro-con" expressions, with one ineffectively trying to cancel out the other.

Somehow all of this got pretty disjointed and erratic, leaving the viewer with a less than clear understanding. Hoffman's "parallellisms," utterly striking in his text, is weakly presented here, with two actors alternatingly delivering Marlowe and Shakespeare quotations. However, these excerpts are not inscribed with source references, nor are the chosen examples as remarkably similar as those in the Hoffman text.

Random cameo interviews with pedestrians on the street merely add an "evening news touch," without much substance. The enactment of the kind of physical torture Marlowe faced unless he exiled himself is disturbingly gross and brutal; this could have been done better through descriptive words and/or illustrations--as it is, the horror makes more impact than the documentary's basic thesis.

The one thing this Frontline/PBS attempt has going for it is its uniqueness: there have been few visual programs on the Shakespeare-Marlowe controversy, and one is grateful for this effort. Another more solid and better executed work on this significant subject is most welcome.

I looked forward to this documentary, since I am convinced that Marlowe was at least the primary author of the "Shakespeare" plays. But this documentary was a failure -- a real mess. It should have been a straightforward point-of-view documentary. Instead it flitted back and forth between dueling arguments, with none of then made coherently. The director had people trying to talk when they were driving, or riding in a noisy car, or shoveling dirt in the garden. This was pointless. The most articulate person interviewed was Dolly Walker Wraight, author of In Search of Christopher Marlowe and other books arguing that Marlowe wrote the "Shakespeare" plays. Most of the time she was allowed to just sit in a chair and talk. In this controversy, I am convinced of two things: 1) William Shakespeare, from Stratford on Avon, could not possibly have written the plays attributed to him. 2) Marlowe's death in Deptford was faked; he was smuggled out of England, probably to France and then Italy. I think that there was group authorship of the "Shakespeare" plays, but Marlowe was the central genius. For someone new to this controversy, I recommend reading Calvin Hoffman's book, The Man Who Was Shakespeare, which can still be found used or in libraries.

Not the greatest of documentaries on the debate about the authorship of Shakespeare's works but certainly one of the funnier and more interesting ones I've seen. If nothing else it convinced me that Marlowe's life could be made into an action packed spy movie. Check it out if you happen to be in a place that shows many documentaries from Canada or Australia.