Act one of Edward II

From the first sentence of the first Scene of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, three of the main themes of the play become apparent; "My Father is deceased; come Gaveston, and share the Kingdom with thy dearest friend." This is said by Gaveston on his return to England, having been banned years before by Edward I. The play's main themes are therefore; death, politics, and friendship, and out of these three themes politics is the one that is focussed upon heavily in the first Act. Marlowe does this very effectively in dramatic terms for example; by bringing out the gay theme strongly between the King and Gaveston. This of course would not have been looked upon positively by the court of Edward at this period.
Gaveston is used to emphasise not only homophobia, but also xenophobia. It is sometimes suggested that many pre-1967 productions concentrated on Gaveston's foreign origins by way of discretely avoiding his more obvious homosexuality: the barons' xenophobia is taken to be a refined alternate for their homophobia. …