The Tudor Court is locked in a power struggle between its nobles and the Machiavellian Cardinal Wolsey, the King’s first minister and the most conspicuous symbol of Catholic power in the land. Wolsey’s ambition knows no bounds and when his chief ally, Queen Katherine, interferes in the King’s romance with Ann Bullen, he brings gigantic ruin upon himself, the Queen and centuries of English obedience to Rome. Famous in its own day as Shakespeare’s most sumptuous and spectacular play, Henry VIII is a gorgeous pageant of masques and royal ceremony; a blaze of fireworks, cannonfire, red satin and cloth-of-gold. But within the passages of grandeur works the mind of the mature Shakespeare: psychological and political insight, language of great depth and power and, in the figures of Wolsey and Katherine, two of his most vivid and memorable characters.
Cast
Michael Bertenshaw
Sir Thomas Lovell / Cardinal Campeius / Porter
Sam Cox
Lord Chamberlain / First Citizen
John Cummins
Thomas Cromwell / Porter’s Man
Ben Deery
Abergavenny / Griffith
Mary Doherty
Patience / A Lady-In-Waiting
John Dougall
Lord Sandys / Gardiner, Bishop Of Winchester
Kate Duchêne
Queen Katherine
Will Featherstone
Earl Of Surrey
Peter Hamilton Dyer
Duke Of Norfolk / Lord Caputius
Anthony Howell
Duke Of Buckingham / Lord Chancellor
Colin Hurley
Second Citizen / Thomas Cranmer
Amanda Lawrence
The Fool / Virginia, A Lady-Inwaiting
Ian Mcneice
Cardinal Wolsey
Miranda Raison
Anne Boleyn
Dominic Rowan
Henry VIII
Crew
Director
Mark Rosenblatt
Designer
Angela Davies
Composer
Nigel Hess
Press Quotes
“If the Globe had a roof, this production would surely have blown it off… Represents the theatre at its very best and makes for a joyous spectacle… Dominic Rowan plays the title role with charisma and vitality and Miranda Raison makes a beguiling Anne Boleyn… Shakespeare has seldom been performed with more verve”
sunday telegraph
“The Tudor costumes are sumptuous, while the big scenes prove genuinely spectacular… Dominic Rowan plays Henry VIII with wit, energy and sudden enlivening moments of menace; Kate Duchêne proves genuinely touching as the unhappy rejected Katherine, and Miranda Raison brings a welcome dash of sex appeal as Anne Boleyn. Best of all is Ian McNeice’s grotesque Cardinal Wolsey”
daily telegraph
“Mark Rosenblatt’s sprightly, intelligent production… Undercutting the pageantry with a sort of Tudor version of The Thick of It”
the financial times
“The production pulls all the stops out in a blaze of mitres, ivory silk, boy choristers in the gallery, and trumpet acclaim for the culminating baptism… Amanda Lawrence’s triple whammy of splendid cameos… A trim, darkly handsome and enigmatic Dominic Rowan valuably keeps you guessing about the extent to which Henry is a conscious hypocrite… As Katherine of Aragon, Kate Duchêne is awesomely fiery and confrontational”
the independent
