HENRY VIII (Shake-Scene Shakespeare Theatre Company)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknow

Henry VIII is probably Shakespeare’s least-known history play. King John is another one that isn’t performed often, but I think people with an interest in Shakespeare usually know it exists. Before I started watching Shakespeare in lockdown, I didn’t even know there was a Henry VIII, but I’ve been lucky enough to see four productions in lockdown. It’s a very enjoyable play – especially with a cast like this – with interesting characters and so many really powerful moments.

Most people know the story of Henry VIII and his wives, especially now there is a hit musical called Six in the West End (it’s not historically accurate, but it is a great musical for awakening interest in history), but Shakespeare’s Henry VIII is interesting because we don’t see all his wives. This is because Shakespeare really liked Henry’s daughter Elizabeth I, who was Queen for most of his playwriting career, so he didn’t want to write anything bad about her mum, Anne Boleyn (or Anne Bullen as she’s called here).

Of course, because of this, we can’t be sure how accurate Shakespeare’s play is either (and Shakespeare himself would only have heard the story from other people), but it is a great story with lots of twists and turns - and lots of characters which are brought to life brilliantly by Shake-Scene. The play works really well on Zoom and it’s always great to see all the close-up details which would probably be lost if you were watching in a theatre. The character names on the screens are also really helpful when there are so many different characters to keep track of.

One thing I particularly like about this production is how different it is from the other productions I’ve seen. Shakespeare’s characters can nearly always be played in a variety of different ways, but there is often a similarity between different characters in different productions. These actors have all taken a really individual approach and many of them find aspects of the characters which I have never seen or even thought about before. As always, it is really interesting to see the cue scripts at work – the quality of the acting is as high as when they’re working from a full script or performing the role off by heart, but the cue scripts create interesting situations which would have been seen in Shakespeare’s time when everyone performs cue scripts, but which we would be unlikely to see in a conventionally staged production.

Henry VIII is often presented as a bit of a rogue at best, but Geoffrey Kirkness makes him likeable in a way I’ve never seen before. Henry seems quite bumbling and confused some of the time and that makes it difficult to dislike him. This is a little bit of a spoiler, though most people will know already, but when one of his wives has a baby, Henry goes all soppy over her and it’s so sweet.

Geraldine Brennan plays Henry’s first wife, Queen Katharine and it’s a great performance. She is very vulnerable in lots of ways, but there is also a dignity and a quiet strength in her performance. I also like the way the Prologue was performed, with Ms Brennan putting on Katharine’s costume in the middle of it.

Eugenia Low plays Anne Bullen. She often seems like quite a quiet character, but here she has a lot more spirit and even when you know the play, you find yourself wondering what she will do next. Ms Low plays a number of roles which show off the breadth of her talent really well. She is especially funny as Doctor Butts.

Valentina Vinci offers brilliant characterisation in several roles, especially as Charles Brandon, Alexandra Kataigida is a suspicious and paranoid Duke of Buckingham and Linda Mathis is a calm and persuasive Duke of Norfolk. Elizabeth Huxley plays Patience and is very moving in her love for Queen Katharine. Ellie Zeegan is brilliant as Cardinal Wolsey – he is very fulsome and you can see him manipulating everybody. I didn’t like him as a character, but he is so good to watch.

Almost every character plays more than one role and they all show impressive versatility, with Iain Peacock, Dewi Hughes, Siegffried Loew-Walker and Thom Jackson-Wood completing a really strong cast. If you do know the play, this is a really good production of it and well worth watching. If you don’t know the play, this production is a great place to start.