Marlowe: a year-long celebration of a brilliant playwright and poet

An ambitious programme, celebrating the birth of poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe 450 years ago, will begin later this month with a rare performance of his early work Dido, Queen of Carthage from 12 to 16 November. A final gala performance will take place in the Senate House. In his unique - and at times idiosyncratic style -Marlowe's passionate and visceral play highlights the destructive nature of obsessive love - Michael Oakley Christopher Marlowe - brilliant playwright and exact contemporary of William Shakespeare - was born in Canterbury early in 1564. The son of a shoe maker, he gained a place at King's School Canterbury from where he won a Parker scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. While a student he translated Ovid's love poems and is thought to have written his first play. Before he was 30, Marlowe was dead, murdered in a row about a bill in a lodging house in Deptford. To celebrate the 450th anniversary of Marlowe's birth, the University of Cambridge Marlowe Society is organising a year-long programme of events, giving audiences the chance to engage with his life and work.