A celebration of a great English heroine, Howard Brenton's new play Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorious second wife.
Anne Boleyn is traditionally seen either as a pawn manipulated by an ambitious father and his friends into the King's bed, or as a sexually licentious predator, even a witch. But Brenton puts a very different Anne - and her ghost - on the Globe stage. Witty and confident in her sexuality, she takes on the vicious world of Tudor Court politics. She is in love with Henry but also in love with the most dangerous ideas of her day. Conspiring with the exiled William Tyndale, the great translator of the Bible who was to be burnt as a heretic, Anne plots to make England Protestant, forever.
Anne Boleyn
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3.9 (9) |  |
0.0 (0) |
| Venue | Shakespeare's Globe (click for full venue information) |
General
| Genres | Drama |
| Begins previews | 24 July 2010 |
| Opening | 28 July 2010 |
| Closing / Booking until | 21 August 2010 |
| Production website | http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/annualtheatreseason/anneboleyn/ |
| Prices from | £5.00 |
| To | £35.00 |
Cast & Creatives
- Author/Writer Howard Brenton
- Director John Dove
Editor reviews
Average editor rating from: 9 user(s)
Brenton's annual Globe romp
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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Reviewed by zuberinoAugust 21, 2010
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Brenton's plays for the Globe are always hugely entertaining affairs and Anne Boleyn is no exception. The standard ingredients are all present: the dusty figures from the pages of history made vivid flesh-and-blood, the bawdy humour, the cut-and-thrust of weighty debate, the breaking of the fourth wall, the cross-cutting across centuries. Miranda Raison makes for a ravishingly believable Anne Boleyn, while James Garnon (who was an electrifying Danton in last year's A New World) is no less effective as the spasmodic James VI. The man is compulsively watchable. All the same, this play falls short of past Brenton hits at the Globe, notably the medieval romance In Extremis and the aforementioned A New World. The splicing of the separate stories of Anne Boleyn and James VI (separated by 70-odd years) doesn't work very well, and leaves one with the distinct impression that the title character has been given rather short shrift by the author. Indeed, Dominic Dromgoole himself, giving his usual last-night speech to the Globe crowd, confirmed that the play was produced in great haste, having been completed only in late May. This rush is almost palpable in the skimpy second half with Anne Boleyn barely getting a look-in. From a writer as gifted as Brenton, one has come to expect much more. Well I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating - the critics have been enthusiastic and the show was all but sold out going into the final week. Still, this tasty pudding could have done with just a bit more nutrition. |
A large colourful canvas
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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Stealing the show is James Garnon as the later James I, who rehabilitates Anne's legacy - and revisits her wardrobe to try on her dresses. Yes, a lively homosexual, this king is not at all camp, but rather a strident Scot who tosses back his head and barks at courtiers meek or mighty. Bursting with a host of other characters and flavours, John Dove's elegant production with period chamber music is rich, invigorating, historical drama. |
| Written by | Quentin Letts |
| Full review | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1298770/Anne-Boleyn-Miranda-Raison-blooms-Tudor-rose.html |
Compelling
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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James Garnon’s James is at first a comic figure, vulgar and sporting an arsenal of nervous tics, but in the conference scenes he shows himself to be an astute politician and manipulator. It is a combination of styles that works well at the Globe, and one I think Brenton has learnt through his earlier experience here. Globe audiences are prepared to take serious matters seriously, but they do require more leavening with humour than usual. This is not the same play that Brenton would have written for, say, the Almeida. Miranda Raison as Anne is the only major player to take the same role in John Dove’s production as in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, also at the Globe this season. Here, she is a woman both of fervent beliefs and steely ambition. After her copy of Protestant heretic William Tyndale’s book The Obedience of a Christian Man is seized by Cardinal Wolsey, she prevails upon Henry (Anthony Howell) to order its return so that he might himself read Tyndale’s argument placing kings on earth directly under God, rather than subordinate first to the Pope, an argument that would enable Henry to declare himself head of the Church of England, divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne. And through the whole court runs the intelligencer network of Thomas Cromwell (John Dougall). The play ends perfunctorily and tritely (even more so in performance than in the published text), but the journey to that point is a compelling one. |
| Written by | Ian Shuttleworth |
| Full review | http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9762a604-9b2a-11df-baaf-00144feab49a.html |
An animated mix of fervent seriousness and strip-cartoon fun
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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John Dove's production fields a wonderful central performance from Miranda Raison, as a woman of passionate beliefs and intelligent mettle, well able to keep Anthony Howell's lithe, dashing Henry on the hook or to face down Colin Hurley's repulsive Cardinal Wolsey. The real Anne never met Tyndale but Brenton produces two encounters. The ending feels anti-climactic. The heroine's downfall is under-prepared and there is insufficient sizzle in her eventual, ghostly summit with James. But in its rich, quirky evocation of period and animated mix of fervent seriousness and strip-cartoon fun, this is a stimulating companion to Shakespeare's Henry VIII, with which it runs in rep. |
| Written by | Paul Taylor |
| Full review | http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/anne-boleyn-shakespeares-globe-london-2041056.html |
A cheeky answer to Shakespeare’s Henry VIII
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | It only just hangs together. The performances, though, in John Dove’s ebullient, zesty production keep your eye off the flaws, moving between periods and serving the switches between arch politicking and Blackadder-ish flourishes with equal aplomb. Brenton, one suspects, fell in love with his subject - and it’s hard not to do so before Miranda Raison’s radiant, intelligent, beautiful Anne. |
| Written by | Dominic Cavendish |
| Full review | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/7916733/Anne-Boleyn-Shakespeares-Globe-review.html |
I enjoyed it a lot
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | Open to the skies and soaked in the Shakespearean tradition of shape-shifted history, the Globe is the proper place for Howard Brenton to bring Anne Boleyn back in this new play. Here she can tease and preach, flirt and fascinate and die: here casts address the audience with casual intimacy, often exiting in a jostle through the groundlings. Even better, its vulnerability to weather adds just the kind of shivers and showers that suit an age of mortal danger and shifting allegiances. |
| Written by | Libby Purves |
| Full review | http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/stage/theatre/article2664442.ece |
Some snappy lines
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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The Globe has had a sticky time with new writing recently. By far the best offering was Howard Brenton’s In Extremis (2006), so it’s good to see this playwright return with a pithy look at the second wife of Henry VIII, Shakespeare’s version of whom is also in this season’s repertoire. Brenton’s earthy script has some snappy lines, and director John Dove manages to coax appealing shading from the supporting cast. |
| Written by | Fiona Mountford |
| Full review | http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23861287-seeking-the-soul-of-another-boleyn-girl.do |
Alive with the crackle of debate
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | This is hard stuff to dramatise, but Brenton and his director, John Dove, keep the stage alive with the crackle of debate, court spy action in parallel eras, some elegant musical and group staging, and a gallery of fascinating characters including John Dougall’s Thomas Cromwell, Peter Hamilton Dyer’s Tyndale, Amanda Lawrence’s abused Lady Rochford and, above all, James Garnon’s remarkable King James, a hyperventilating poseur with an eye for a good costume and a pretty youth. |
| Written by | Michael Coveney |
| Full review | http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831280392899/Anne+Boleyn.html |
Probably the best show at the Globe this year
| Rating: | 5.0 |
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| Review | John Dove’s direction is near flawless: the action is fast-paced and fluid, the scene changes are wickedly well done, the music well-integrated into proceedings, this seems to be a confluence of a whole world of things going right, especially with excellent writing which is completely appropriate to the venue and a top-notch ensemble on top of their game. |
| Written by | Ian Foster |
| Full review | http://oughttobeclowns.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-anne-boleyn-shakespeares-globe.html |
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