This is our page on the play A Game at Chess, for more detail of our live performance of the play, go to our Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess LIVE! page. CW: The below will discuss sexual assault and the plays anti-Catholic bias.

A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton was produced for an epic nine (possibly more) back to back performances in August 1624. Usually described only as a piece of satire, working in topical references to the Spanish Match (trademark pending), it is actually a perfectly standard Middleton play about corruption, sexual politics, and the church. Many of the themes of the play – the abuse by those in power, and the way institutions cover up those abuses – are as relevant today as then. Whilst you do need to know a little about the division of the confession and states between Catholic and Protestant forces, many of the allusions to specifics are either trimable, or can fly past without comment. It is a dark play, with themes and attempts of sexual violence, and the direction the play takes is not always comfortable, it is a lot more than just a footnote to an episode in early modern political history.

The primary plot of the play follows the fate of the White Queen’s Pawn, who has been unlucky in love. Her intended, the White Bishop’s Pawn, had been… gelded… prior to the action of the play. Within the logic of the period, this means he wasn’t a good match anymore because there couldn’t be children. This leads her to question her faith and the direction of her life. Here her opposite number, the Black Queen’s Pawn leaps in, and points her across the confession to the Black Bishop’s Pawn. He is, in theory, trying to teach her the ways of his confession – but instead he intends to use her for the aims of the Black House. In theory the Black Bishop’s Pawn has been instructed to use the White Queen’s Pawn to gain access to the White Queen to take her – within the logic of a chess match, the White Queen is guarded by her pawn, and at court in real life would also be guarded by her ladies in waiting. By take her, it means both as a piece in the game, but also as in sexually assault her. This is a dark play, where the stakes of the action are actually very high.

As it happens, the Black Bishop’s Pawn diverts from the plan and attempts to rape the White Queen’s Pawn instead – the reaction of his peers suggests that this kind of thing happens all the time in the church, and they admonish him for getting caught. There is a trial scene, which has many depressing modern parallels, where the White Queen’s Pawn is not believed and left in the hands of her abusers. She is quickly vindicated, but the play then takes her on a very different path which we will leave for now.

Around this plot is the action of the spymaster general, the Black Knight, who pulls all the strings to make the game work for his side. He has a double agent undercover in the White House, the King’s own pawn, who he takes midway through the play. He also persuades one of the White House bishops – known as The Fat Bishop – to come over to the Black House in the same scene. The Fat Bishop had already crossed the board once, and is tempted back so that the Black Knight can get revenge against him. Both Knight and Bishop are big character actor roles, who love the sounds of their own voices – in the case of the Black Knight, is over talking and boasting leads him to give away his secrets at the end of the play, and so losing the game for the Black House.

There are a host of minor characters who have fun arcs – the Black Knight’s Pawn is the man who gelded the White Queen’s Pawns intended, and he is wracked with guilt for the act. Unfortunately for him, no one in the Black House will give him absolution for gelding. The only way to get forgiven is to kill the man he wronged, as murder IS a forgivable sin within the logic of the play.

The White King isn’t a big part, but he does have some very interesting character flaws. When the trial for rape occurs he can’t bear to hear the word, and refuses to actively involve himself in the crime. He swans in to act the saviour for the White Queen towards the end of the play, even when he hasn’t actually done anything to help her in the scene.

The other members of the White House are presented a little more favourably, but not as expansively as the Black House. The White Knight and the White Duke go undercover, pretending to be interested in crossing over to the Black House – largely to try to get the Black Knight to give up his secrets. Imagine them wearing a wire, trying to record him saying something to use against him.

The second half of the play is concerned with this undercover sting, and attempt to ‘take’ the White Queen, but it mostly stays with the White Queen’s Pawn from the first half, in a plot line that seems weird, but actually works very well once staged.

Having been freed and vindicated, in part by the Black Queen’s Pawn, the White Queen’s Pawn is persuaded that she will be able to see her future husband via a magic glass. The husband the ‘magic glass’ presents is in fact her abuser, the Black Bishop’s Pawn in disguise. Once again duped, the White Queen’s Pawn agrees to a contract of marriage, and to sleep with her fiance before the ceremony. However, the Black Queen’s Pawn leads her into a separate chamber, and sleeps with the Black Bishop’s Pawn herself. When the Bishop’s Pawn turns up as himself to marry the White Queen’s Pawn, he thinks he has slept with her, and she thinks he’s there to marry her to someone else. It all turns out to be a revenge plot by the Black Queen’s Pawn, who has beef with the Bishop’s Pawn and at that moment arranges for them to get taken. After it all, the White Queen’s Pawn renounces men. And frankly, who would blame her.

If this all sounds complicated, in performance it isn’t so much. The big problem with following the play is the act of reading it – White Pawn, Black Knight etc – are rubbish names to read off a page. It’s often impossible to follow. We gave all the parts numbers, to attempt to follow who was who. It vaguely helped. But when we performed the play, albeit as an audio production, most of those issues dropped away. We hope the releases we have worked on help audiences connect with a play in a way that reading clearly does not.

2024 was 400th Anniversary of the play being staged in 1624, so we produced a number of events with as wide an access as we can manage. We extended our normal zoom exploring sessions (play readings) into the summer, with a series of anniversary readings of A Game at Chess. At the same time as running the show on zoom we also produced a pop up Middleton festival, Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess LIVE!, at The White Bear in Kennington, featuring a live performance of A Game at Chess, discussions of the play, a look at Middleton’s last public work, the 1626 Lord Mayor’s show, and other selections of writing from across his life. More on this can be found on our Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess LIVE! page.

Events List for 2024

23rd April at 7pm – Discussing: The Theatrical Legacy of Thomas Middleton – an online event celebrating the publication of The Theatrical Legacy of Thomas Middleton, 1624-2024 – Featuring William David Green, Anna L. Hegland, Sam Jermy, and host Robert Crighton. Running online via zoom on Tuesday 23rd April, it has now been edited for the podcast.

From 5th August – Nine Chess Games – 5th to 14th August at 2pm BST

11th August – Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess at 400 at The White Bear, Kennington.

15th August – Recordings of the Nine Chess Games released daily on YouTube

August 2025 – A Game at Chess – releases of A Full Cast Audio Recording on the podcast, plus all the other recordings from the live show (also in playlist below). Introduction – First Half of the Play – Second Half of the Play – King’s Gambit (aftermath of the play) – 1626 Lord Mayor’s Show – Middleton’s Endgame (end of day panel)

Playlists – explorations of the text on the pod and YouTube