Não deve ser fácil para um ator interpretar um papel, sobretudo se esse papel for de uma obra clássica, sabendo que tem atrás do seu desempenho toda uma plêiade de representações impolutas e de referência. Mesmo assim alguns decidem ousar! Joseph Fiennes (na foto com James D'Arcy fazendo de Gavestone) avança - em 2001 no Crucible Theatre Sheffield - com a sua interpretação de Eduardo II, mesmo sabendo que tinha de "terçar armas" com interpretações paradigmáticas como as de Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen (1970) e a de Steven Waddington (1991) no filme homónimo de Derek Jarman. Pelos vistos não se saiu mal, pois o crítico do The Guardian escreve, em 15 de março de 2001, e depois de atribuir quatro estrelas ao espetáculo: " Finne's true gift is for inwardness, and, through his graceful stealth, he elevates Marlowe's rhetorical homily into true tragedy."

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                     ACT TWO, SCENE TWO

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(...)

QUEEN ISABELLA: Sweet husband, be content; they all love you.

KING EDWARD: They love me not that hate my Gaveston.

I am that cedar; shake me not too much;

And you the eagles, soar ye ne'er so high,

I have the jesses that will pull you down;

And AEque tandem shall that canker cry

Unto the proudest peer of Britainy.

Thou that compar'st him to a flying-fish,

And threaten'st death whether he rise or fall,

'Tis not the hugest monster of the sea,

Nor foulest harpy, that swallow him,

YOUNGER MORTIMER: If in his absence thus he

favours him,

LANCASTER: That shall we see: look, where his lordship comes!

    ( Enter Gaveston )

KING EDWARD: My Gaveston!

Welcome to Tynemouth! Welcome to thy friend!

Thy absence made me droop and pine away,

For, as the lovers of fair Danae,

When she was lock'd up in a brazen tower,

(...)

GAVESTON: Sweet lord and king, your speech

preventeth mine;

Yet have I words left to express my joy,

The shepherd, nipt with biting winter's rage,

Frolics not more to see the painted spring

Than I do to behold your majesty.

KING EDWARD: Will none of you salute my Gaveston?

LANCASTER: Salute him! Yes, Welcome, Lord Chamberlain!

YOUNGER MORTIMER: Welcome is the good Earl of Cornwall!

WARWICK: Welcome, Lord Governor of the Isle of Man!

PEMBROKE: Welcome, Master Secretary!

KENT: Brother, do you hear them?

KING EDWARD: Still will these earls and barons use me thus?

GAVESTON. My lord, I cannot brook these injuries.

QUEEN ISABELLA (aside) : Ay me, poor soul, when these begin to jar!

     Marlowe, Cristopher. The Complete Plays. London: Penguin Books, 1986, pp 465 - 466.

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