A “monstrous child whom none dared gainsay” – so writes Robert Bolt of Henry VIII within the introduction to his 1960 play. The “man for all seasons” of its title is Thomas Extra, introduced by Bolt in simply one among his facets (– in distinction with the portrayal of Extra within the BBC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Corridor trilogy: “a hero of selfhood”, one who did gainsay his king.
As in Shakespeare, this isn’t a lot a historical past as a morality play, substituting actual individuals for allegorical abstractions so as to add layers of complexity and ambiguity. Because of this it appears to me a disgrace that Simon Higlett’s design fastens the motion to its time, giving us an impressive, Tudor-style, panelled-wood set and dressing actors in interval costumes. These particularities masks the truth that the main focus of the drama is a dilemma not outlined by time or place: what plan of action is open to a person who believes within the regulation when their head of state defies the regulation?
Martin Shaw’s finely tuned Extra is credible each as fallible human and as hero – loving to household and buddies, exasperated by fools and villains, lawyerly in his discretion, agency in his adherence to conscience (well-known to tv audiences as Decide John Deed, Shaw beforehand performed Extra on stage in 2006). In his transient look as Henry VIII, Orlando James embodies the king’s terrifying mixture of lightness and appeal radiating from a core of vicious self-will.
The energy of Jonathan Church’s patchy manufacturing lies within the readability of the presentation of the workings of a perverted energy by bold people, such because the machiavellian Thomas Cromwell (Edward Bennett splicing corruption with worry) and in its participating presentation of narrator determine, the Widespread Man (Gary Wilmot’s efficiency completely pitched), speaking the viewers by the scenes and embodying the underlings, unnamed by historical past, who get by as greatest they will.
A Man for All Seasons is touring the UK till 15 March
