Silk purse and cow’s ear comes lazily to mind, with the RSC’s hugely enjoyable and transforming production of Christopher Marlowe’s rarely performed play, Dido, Queen of Carthage.

However although the text – probably co-authored with Thomas Nashe – is uneven, it has some worthy components. Marlowe is Marlowe. And here you find some of his most beautiful poetry; a dramatic plot largely borrowed from the best – Virgil’s Aeneid; and irony and broader humour from the additional inclusion of interventions by the gods. Director Kimberley Sykes and her team draw it all together with flair and originality, around an outstanding performance from Chipo Chung as Dido.

The plot in its essentials is of Aeneas the human son of the god Venus, a warrior refugee from the Greek destruction of Troy, intent upon forming a Trojan settlement in Italy: thus fulfilling his destiny as the forefather of the founders of Rome.  Divine intervention saves him from a storm, and in Libya the dart of Cupid wins him the love, protection and possessiveness of Queen Dido. Jupiter the King of the Gods insists that he leave, and with his reluctant departure the tragic queen takes her own life.

Chipo Chung captures wonderfully both the charm, beauty and munificence of Dido, and her subsequent emotional disintegration driven by love. Sandy Grierson’s Aeneas is no romantic lead, but a bald, dour Scot still in shock, as explained by his harrowing account of the massacre. Dido’s affection thaws him a little, but his final stark rejection underscores Marlowe’s views on the power of unrequited love.

Fine performances too from two other victims of love, by Amber James as Dido’s high-spirited sister Anna and Daniel York, full of near exploding spleen, as Iarbas, Dido’s displaced suiter.

The Gods, initially in a louche, ultra-sophisticated Mount Olympus, enjoy their meddling and quarreling in high camp style, Nicholas Day is a disgracefully captivating old rake of a Jupiter, Ellie Beaven a girlishly peevish Venus, Ben Goffe a joyful, rollicking Cupid and Bridgitta Roy a lame but elegant grand dame Juno.

An alluring and exotic Carthage is conjured with telling simplicity and lasting utility by designer Ti Green, with just a sand floor and a variedly lit back wall of occasional cascading water. Exquisite costume by Cathy Hill symbolise both the lush attraction of Carthage and the Trojans wish to get free of it. Whilst Mike Fletcher’s impressive jazzy score imparts great energy, love and discord.

The wonder of theatre is that its impact can never be calculated from the written page. Dido is decidedly a star of the RSCs Roman season.   ★★★★☆     Derek Briggs    28^th September 2017