The Alleynian 702 2014

E verybody in Year 10 was quite apprehensive. We had been told simply that this day would be different from our normal school day. Only when we reached the Great Hall did we discover we were to investigate the death of the playwright Christopher Marlowe. The scene for the day was set by a fascinating talk from barrister Mark Gatley, who introduced us to a ghastly world of crime and told us about the cases he had worked on, which included the high- profile case of Stephen Lawrence. Mr Trevill and Mrs Angel explained in further detail how we would investigate the case of Marlowe and took us through the coroner’s report of the murder. At this point, we were split into our classes. My class began with the sword fighting activity, where we planned a re-enactment of the murder from the details outlined in the coroner’s report. Our decisions about where each person involved was at the time were to be acted out by visiting actors at the end of the day to illustrate the different conspiracy theories surrounding Marlowe’s death. Some people from each class also had the opportunity to view a surviving piece of original script from one of Marlowe’s plays, one of the most valuable documents in the College archives. Shown to us by Mr Weaver,

19

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker