ichael Kahn – a man whose deep baritone could fill the cavernous halls of the newly opened Harman Center for the Arts – is today barely audible, his voice merely a gravely whisper. He’s tired. In the nearby auditorium, a tech crew puts the final touches on Christopher “Kit” Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, a production upon which Kahn has unequivocally placed his directorial stamp. Add to that the accumulation of five years of planning, anticipation and construction in the run-up to the opening of the Harman Center, and you can see why he might be running on empty. He wouldn’t want it any other way.

“It feels terrific to be working in our new home. I’m just eager to spend more time on stage,” Kahn says.The stage is what Kahn knows best. So much so that architect Jack Diamond leveraged this knowledge to create the city’s most stateof- the art performing center.

“The number one wish was to have a theater that could transform; that could be a thrust stage one night and proscenium the next, and an end stage and music ensemble the
next two. That’s a very big thing which I have never been able to do,” Kahn says.
The stage is what Kahn knows best. So much so that architect Jack Diamond leveraged this knowledge to create the city’s most stateof- the art performing center.

“The number one wish was to have a theater that could transform; that could be a thrust stage one night and proscenium the next, and an end stage and music ensemble the next two. That’s a very big thing which I have never been able to do,” Kahn says.

The theater’s versatilty has been on display since October – Kahn’s Tamburlaine and Gale Edwards’ adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s

Edward II have been sharing stage space; on Saturdays one show takes a matinee slot, while the other an evening.
Kahn’s penchant for big is also on display in Marlowe’s epic works:

“He was the first playwright to bring worlds and universes to the stage,” Kahn explains. “He was a great contemporary of Shakespeare; Henry the Sixth was very much influenced by Marlowe’s work.” I bring up the fact that some people believe Marlowe actually penned Henry. Kahn laughs. “That’s preposterous,” he scoffs.

So why Marlowe and not the Bard to open the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s second home? “I thought it would be interesting to open with a Marlowe production and see what the space could do,” he says. “My other joke is that people don’t wake up in the morning going, ‘I wonder if there is a Marlowe play on tonight?’”

Through his years on Broadway, as artistic director of the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut and now The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kahn has been known to push the envelope – a classic example being
his 1960s-inspired production of Love’s Labor’sLost, which traveled to the Royal Shakespeare “Company’s Complete Works Festival” in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, last August.

“We got very good reviews of a very tough production; we just didn’t have the accents. But according to Shakespeare’s own records, the way his original plays were acted didn’t sound British at all. I think if Americans do [Shakespeare], it’s closer to how it sounded originally.”

Kahn continues to challenge audiences with Tamburlaine. “It could be a pageant; it could be a huge criticism of empire and colonialism; it could be a deeply religious play in which a man who burns the holy book of Islam becomes ill immediately and dies; it could be about a man who is a ruthless conqueror; but it could also be about a man who is an extraordinary poet and intellect, as
indeed, was the real Tamburlaine.”

With the current U.S. administration’s presence in the Middle East, Tamburlaine’s themes of empire building and its settings in Syria, Jordan and Iraq seem all too familiar. Was this on Kahn’s mind when he chose to adapt Tamburlaine 1 and 2?

Kahn responds carefully then relents: “Great classical plays are always relevant on some levels ... of course, a play can be more relevant in certain places and at certain times. Certainly it’s a play about Asia, and it does take place in the present day Middle East, but more than that, it’s a play about a man’s ambition to come through the
most horrible set of circumstances, to become a god, and then to discover the world’s absolute.

His was the largest empire in the world, and he was about to conquer China when he died. He would have owned half the world. Ironically, if he hadn’t beaten the mighty Turkish Emperor Bajazeth, the Turks would have invaded Europe, and we’d probably be talking about another type of playwright.”

Having conquered stages from New York to Washington to Europe, Kahn, like Tamburlaine, could continue to find new lands to triumph in; yet, he happily calls Washington home: “The truth is, other than the fact that I really like Washington, for the past 20 years or so I have done the work I wanted to, when I wanted to, in front of a crowd that has allowed me to do it.”

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe, directed by Gale Edwardsand Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe, adapted and directed byMichael Kahn, run through 1/6/08. www.shakespearetheatre.org