Rober Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, is steeped in the politics of the age, but the dispositions of its characters have a timelessness that inescapably leads us to reflect on the world's current leaders.
A joy for all lovers of historical drama
Simon Higlett’s set and costumes leave us in no doubt that this is a Tudor period piece. The wood panelling that surrounds the perimeters of the stage is black and foreboding, yet flexibly creates multiple locations, assisted by evocative lighting from Mark Henderson: Moore’s home, rooms in the Tower and palaces, the prison cell and scaffold and the banks of the Thames.
Martin Shaw powerfully portrays the many facets of Sir Thomas More, embodying Bolt’s desire to reveal him as a man of principle and integrity, a scholar, legal expert and ruthless logician, a loyal subject and devoted family man.
More becomes swept up in the intense moral and political manoeuvrings that dominated the reign of Henry VIII. Orlando James, presents the king as an affable fellow whose main concern at this time is to ensure his divorce from Queen Catherine. He wants to carry his friend with him on this and even appoints More to the office of Lord Chancellor, but such is More’s devotion to his faith and the letter of the law that the King's requests prove impossible.
In the presence of More, others seem to be somewhat dim-witted. Shaw clearly shows the man’s frustration at being surrounded by intellectual inferiors and those who would compromise in order to please the King, fearing his judgement above that of God’s. At the forefront of these is Norfolk, whom Timothy Watson shows to be the compromising pragmatist; a bewildered man lost in a legal and theological sea and who’s only basis for action is self preservation. He is the antithesis of More.
Other vivid portrayals come from Nicholas Day as Cardinal Wolsey, a milder version of the scheming Thomas Cromwell (Edward Bennett), though equally unworthy of office, as is Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (Sam Parks). Bennett creates a chilling character who draws the weak, the gullible and the ambitious into his machinations, because he knows he can successfully use and manipulate them, as Calum Finlay’s Roper demonstrates in a dangerous blend of ambition and naivete.
To move the play along, Bolt created The Common Man as a narrator and versatile character to assume numerous bit parts. Gary Wilmot provides light moments of observation and comment and has that essential down-to-earth quality demanded of the role.
Director Jonathan Church faithfully delivers Bolt’s text in a production that is a joy for all lovers of historical drama.
