Anne Boleyn

The Cotswold Players

Anne Boleyn.                     

Cotswold Playhouse, Stroud.      November 21st 2018

Director: Hannah McDonald

Assistant Director, Music and Choreographer: Jenny Nixon

This play by Howard Brenton was well written, with moments of high drama and humour, with modern language, cleverly written asides to the audience giving them the truth about what was happening or explaining something, and modern music played in Tudor style, which reinforced unfolding events.  No one will ever know the truth about Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, but this gives one version of her which makes her come to life.

It had a simple basic set of two wide steps across the full width of the back of the stage, a construction with three arches up stage, and two towers one on either side further downstage.  Although the basic set was simple the projections used to move to different locations were amazing, from the Chapel in the Tower of London, to various locations at Hampton Court, to woodland glades and the beautiful night time scene.  The operation of the projections and the accompanying lighting gave excellent effects.  The sound was well controlled with lovely bird song in the outdoor scenes.  Costuming this production was a huge task with a cast of sixteen with several members playing multiple roles, everyone had been well costumed, with attention to detail for the different levels of hierarchy, Henry and James I and the ladies of Court, were opulently dressed.  

The choreography, provided by Jenny Nixon, was stately and flirtatious had a feel of the Tudor court.                                                                 

Director Hannah McDonald, had chosen an extremely strong cast and everyone from the title role to the lesser servants obviously understood the play and their part in the story, there were no weak links.  The more well known male characters from history were there, along with lesser known but important ones.  The experienced statesman Robert Cecil, played by Tim Howard; Lloyd Morgan as the Cardinal Wolsey; Phil Domaille was superb as the calculating Thomas Cromwell; Patrick Howell as Tyndale captured the right degree of deference.  Caleb O’Brien was a convincing young King Henry, maturing in the role as the play progressed.  The Ladies of the Court tried to support Anne with Lady Rochford played by Heidi Price showing that choices had to be made between loyalty to Anne and keeping herself safe.  Jonathan Vickers gave an outstanding performance as King James I, with a consistently good Scottish accent.  His fascination with the person of Anne Boleyn is a main theme of the play.  From the moment she walked onto the stage with her severed head in a bag, until her downfall at the end, Sarah Kilmister, as Anne Boleyn, engaged with the audience and gave an excellent performance throughout. She portrayed the gamut of emotions well,

Director Hannah McDonald had worked hard with her cast to bring the characters to life, and had made good use of the theatre for entrances and exits, including Anne’s ghost appearing through the stage.  Her enthusiasm for this play had acted as a catalyst for everyone involved with this play to bring a totally absorbing production to the stage.  Congratulations everyone.

 

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