Productions of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII do not come around too frequently. One of his last plays and written with John Fletcher, some feel that it sticks out a bit too stylistically in the canon of the bard. For this summer’s season at Shakespeare’s Globe a new script in collaboration with Hannah Khalil is presented a mere 200 metres from the site where ‘All Is True’, as the play was originally called, had its debut, writes Christopher Peacock.
The lack of productions could also be down to superstition. It was on this play’s debut in 1613 with ‘certain chambers being shot off’ in Act I Scene 4 that saw the thatch of the original Globe Theatre set alight and within an hour destroy the venue. Directed by Amy Hodge, there is no danger of that happening again. The only cannons being fired here are of the confetti kind.
This version has been thoroughly cut to change the focus to the women at the heart of this story. Khalil’s hand in the script adds Princess Mary to the cast to give another perspective on the events surrounding her family. Lines and passages from Shakespeare’s other works are borrowed, again to draw attention to the women’s stories in this Tudor court, and many of the smaller male roles are cut or are changed from gentleman to woman. With additional songs that attempt to become feminine anthems, it’s hard not to draw comparisons with the musical Six, which has had huge success in telling this piece of our history with the voices of the women of the Royal Family.
The original text focuses on the early reign of Henry VIII, his need for a male heir and the mechanisms of state and church. It covers the breakdown of the marriage with Katherine (of Aragon), the pursuit of Anne Bullin (Boleyn), the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey and the birth of Elizabeth. The timeline in this version sticks true to that but with Katherine, played superbly by Bea Segura, given more room to highlight the injustice in her treatment.
The production design by Georgia Lowe does help to bring clarity, with the modern/classic attire of the cast being simply colour-coded to align those with the Royal house and those with the Catholic church. In terms of some of Hodge’s direction, the pursuit of clarity becomes blunt and heavy-handed. An example is after talks of producing an heir to the throne, balloons fall from the sky, in the pink and blue of a gender reveal party and the manic way in which Henry VIII charges around popping the pink ones is rather crude. Crude, given that this has all happened a while after a scene where a huge golden phallus was dropped onto the stage.
The show as a whole does seem quite muddled but performances from most of the cast are great. Baker Mukasa has a wonderful presence as both Norfolk and Sands, and alongside Jamie Ballard’s Cardinal Wolsey they both handle the space well in what can be acoustically a tough task. Adam Gillen’s Henry VIII comes across as clownish at times and this is not helped when being at the heart of the show’s bawdy moments.
The additions and changes to the script do certainly achieve the goal of bringing a female focus to this part of Tudor history. However, you do wonder if others have done this more succinctly and effectively when starting afresh, rather than trying to re-work it into one of Shakespeare’s more difficult pieces.
Shakespeare’s Globe, Bankside, SE1 until 21st October. Times: 7.30pm; matinees 2pm. Admission: £5 – £64.
Booking: www.shakespearesglobe.com
