REVIEW: A Man for All Seasons – Malvern Theatres (Tuesday, February 4 to Saturday, February 8).
Showtime! stars rating: * * * * *
READING up on the present government’s plan to reintroduce the blasphemy laws put me in the perfect mood for later viewing this classic play set in 16th century Tudor England.
I thought it might be a case of déjà vu, and so it was. Heretic! Papist! Blasphemer! Climate denier… Tory scum!
Yes, it all fits in rather well, even if there is a time gap of 500 years, which just goes to show that nothing in this weird world of humans ever changes. Apart from the mindless, crude labelling, of course.
Director Jonathan Church’s wonderfully crafted production makes it clear that the epicentre of Establishment control is totally toxic, riddled with paranoia, plots and counterplots, a cess pool where one ill-judged remark or expressed opinion could lead to all sorts of horrors.
No, I’m not talking about today’s Houses of Parliament, rather this unapologetically biased play by Catholic apologist the late Robert Bolt, in which central character Sir Thomas More is portrayed as the victim of cruel circumstance and his own high principles, stances for which he will eventually lose his head.
Not, it should be noted, as the man who as Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor sent several Protestants to the stake for denying the transubstantiation. The equivalent today would never be working for the BBC again.
More was even rumoured to have a rack at his London home, which must have been very convenient when it came to wringing confessions out of Real Presence Deniers and occasionally breaking off for a refreshing goblet of finest Burgundy.
I feel bound to mention this because Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall presents a very different picture of More, in which the main protagonist is delivered by Anton Lesser as a rather grubby multi-tasker who, when not persecuting heretics, is knocking out great works of philosophy such as Utopia in which everyone seems to be living blissful lives, certainly not being slowly barbecued.
Consequently, Mantel has come under attack, accused of bias. But there again, what is Bolt if not also biased? History is not necessarily written by the victors.
Nevertheless, Bolt’s hero – in the hands of the supremely gifted Martin Shaw – is convincingly portrayed as a man who gives up everything, including his life, for remaining steadfast in his opposition to the king’s break with Rome.
This momentous event would ultimately lead to the English Reformation, an historical milestone perhaps only eclipsed centuries later by Brexit. And all for the love of a woman, Anne Boleyn, too.
Shaw effectively conveys the respectful affection he has for Henry, played with endless pomp and jovial bombast by Orlando James. At first, Henry is confident that his friend will come round to his signing of the Act of Supremacy, the document that confirms the monarch’s role as head of the English Church, rather than the Pope.
But things soon take an ominous turn when the odious triumvirate of Norfolk (Timothy Watson), Archbishop Cranmer (Sam Parks) and Thomas Cromwell (Edward Bennett) form an unholy alliance, and More is therefore doomed.
Meanwhile, they are supported by their quisling henchman, the infamous torturer Richard Rich, who is given the full weasel treatment by Calum Finlay.
Fine, highly charged performances too from Abigail Cruttenden as More’s hapless wife Alice, who in vain pleads with him to sign the fateful document, right up until the last moments.
But the man holding this all together is the irrepressible Gary Wilmot, as The Common Man, on reflection perhaps the eternal victim who has, down the ages, been at the mercy of kings, emperors and - these days - the politicians.
Martin Shaw and his terrific team of fellow actors received standing ovations on the first night. And they were indeed richly deserved, testament to the power of Robert Bolt’s take on Tudor politics that continue to have a disturbing resonance with our own times.
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