{{Short description|2010 British drama play}} {{primary sources|date=July 2011}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox play | name = Anne Boleyn | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = | writer = [[Howard Brenton]] | characters = [[Henry VIII]], [[Anne Boleyn]], [[Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Wolsey]], [[Thomas Cromwell]], [[James VI and I|James I]], [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|George Villiers]] | setting = England, 1519–1536 and 1603–1604 | premiere = 24 July 2010 | place = [[Shakespeare's Globe]] | orig_lang = English | subject = [[English Reformation]] | genre = Drama | web = http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-stage/anne-boleyn }} '''''Anne Boleyn''''' is a play on the life of [[Anne Boleyn]] by the English author [[Howard Brenton]], which premiered at [[Shakespeare's Globe]] in 2010. Anne Boleyn is portrayed as a significant force in the political and religious in-fighting at court and a furtherer of the cause of [[Protestantism]] in her enthusiasm for the [[Tyndale Bible]].<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/anne-boleyn-shakespeares-globe-london-2315856.html Michael Coveney, The Independent, 19 July 2011]</ref>
==Production history== The play was commissioned by [[Shakespeare's Globe]], and premiered at The Globe from 24 July to 21 August 2010 in a production directed by [[John Dove]] and with the title role played by [[Miranda Raison]] (also playing Boleyn in Shakespeare's ''Henry VIII'' in the same season). It was presented alongside the Globe's first season of [[Shakespeare]]'s [[history play]]s, made up of ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'', ''[[Henry IV Part 1]]'' and ''[[Henry IV Part 2]]''. The same production was revived in 2011 as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations of the [[King James Version]], with most of the same cast.
The play was awarded Best New Play at the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Awards 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://awards.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=1267|title=WOS Awards | Home}}</ref>
In Spring 2012 the Globe's production was revived for a tour of England and Scotland, jointly produced by [[Shakespeare's Globe]] and [[English Touring Theatre]] and featuring many of the original cast although with Jo Herbert in the title role.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ett.org.uk/productions/70/anne-boleyn |title=Anne Boleyn – Howard Brenton – 2012 – Productions – English Touring Theatre |access-date=22 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111062653/http://www.ett.org.uk/productions/70/anne-boleyn |archive-date=11 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Plot== The ghost of Anne Boleyn arrives, carrying a blood-stained bag containing her severed head and a copy of [[Tyndale's Bible]], and addresses the audience. The action moves to 1603, where [[James VI and I|James I]] arrives in London for his English coronation and finds a chest containing Anne Boleyn's coronation dress. Searching the chest's secret compartments, he finds Anne's copies of the Tyndale Bible and ''[[The Obedience of a Christian Man]]''. He and his lover [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|George Villiers]] go to search the palace for Anne's ghost.
The action shifts to Anne Boleyn at the English court, where [[Henry VIII]] meets her, falls in love and agrees to her demand that they will not have sex until he can marry her. Henry begins proceedings to annul his marriage to [[Catherine of Aragon]], with both [[Cardinal Wolsey]] and Wolsey's advisor manoeuvring for position.
Anne goes secretly to meet with [[William Tyndale]] and he gives her a copy of the forbidden text ''The Obedience of a Christian Man''. She entrusts this to her ladies in waiting, but two of Wolsey's servants seize it from the ladies and take it to Wolsey, who is delighted to use it to discredit Anne with the king. Anne goes to Cromwell for advice and finds that he, like her, is a secret Protestant. Anne then takes Cromwell's advice and pre-empts Wolsey's action – in so doing she not only gets the book back but brings about Wolsey's fall. She also partially convinces Henry to accept the book's argument that the head of the church in England is not the pope but the king himself. The action then moves forward to winter 1532 in Calais, at a conference with [[Francis I of France]], where Anne and Henry make love for the first time, with the annulment and their marriage imminent.
The action returns to James's reign, where he attempts to calm the Reformation that Anne's actions and Henry's annulment had unleashed, by holding the [[Hampton Court Conference]] between the [[Puritan]] and [[Anglican]] wings of the [[Church of England]]. The Puritan faction is led by John Reynolds and the Anglican one by Lancelot Andrews, both of them moderates. However, extremists on both sides such as [[Henry Barrowe]] cause the debate to drag on for over five hours, only ending when James angrily quashes any thoughts of making the Church of England [[presbyterianism|presbyterian]] rather than [[Episcopal polity#Anglican Communion|episcopal]] – his struggles with presbyterianism in the [[Church of Scotland]] have led him to believe it threatens the king's position as [[Supreme Head of the Church of England]] and supreme secular ruler by [[Divine right of kings|divine right]]. He then meets with Reynolds and Andrews privately for further discussions, which end in a compromise agreement to produce an [[Authorized King James Version|Authorised Version]] of the Bible with an Anglican slant but based on the Puritan-favoured Tyndale translation.
The action shifts back to Anne and the birth of the future [[Elizabeth I]] of England. She then goes to Tyndale with an offer from Cromwell of a place on the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] for the better advancement of the Protestant cause, but he refuses it and tells her that he opposes Henry's divorce and does not recognise her as Henry's true wife. Some time later Anne miscarries a male child, which bruises but does not destroy her relationship with Henry, still hopeful for a son. However, Henry then takes Anne's lady in waiting Jane Seymour as a mistress and his relationship with Anne is finally wrecked when she is imprisoned by Cromwell. Anne is then kept from communicating with Henry in the lead-up to her execution, in a pre-emptive strike by Cromwell to avoid her telling Henry of Cromwell's embezzlement of funds from [[dissolution of the monasteries|dissolved monasteries]]. The play then ends in 1603, where Anne's ghost talks with James about the Protestant Reformation she helped begin and then addresses the audience before departing.
==Cast (premiere production)== *Michael Bertenshaw – [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Robert Cecil]], advisor to James *[[Sam Cox (actor)|Sam Cox]] – [[Lancelot Andrews]], head of the Anglican faction, moderate *Naomi Cranston – Lady [[Jane Seymour]], lady-in-waiting to Anne *John Cummins – Simpkin, servant to Wolsey and Cromwell / Parrot, servant to Cecil *Ben Deery – [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|George Villiers]], lover of James *Mary Doherty – Lady Celia, lady-in-waiting to Anne *[[John Dougall (actor)|John Dougall]] – [[Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex|Thomas Cromwell]], advisor to Wolsey and Henry *Will Featherstone – Sloop, servant to Wolsey and Cromwell *James Garnon – [[James VI and I|James I]] *Peter Hamilton Dyer – [[William Tyndale]] *[[Anthony Howell (actor)|Anthony Howell]] – [[Henry VIII]] *[[Colin Hurley]] – [[Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Wolsey]] / [[Henry Barrow]], Puritan extremist *Amanda Lawrence – Lady Rochford, chief lady-in-waiting to Anne *[[Miranda Raison]] – [[Anne Boleyn]] *Dickon Tyrrell – Dr [[John Rainolds|John Reynolds]], head of the Puritan faction, moderate
===Unseen characters=== *[[Thomas More]] *[[Catherine of Aragon]] *[[Elizabeth I|Princess Elizabeth]] *[[Francis I of France]]
==See also== * [[Anne Boleyn in popular culture]]
==Reviews== *[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/jul/29/anne-boleyn-review ''Guardian'', 30 July 2010] *{{cite journal |author=Mark Lawson |title=Seductive belief |journal=[[The Tablet]] |volume=264 |issue=8856 |date=7 August 2010|pages=29}}
==References== <references/>
{{Howard Brenton}} {{Anne Boleyn}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anne Boleyn (Play)}} [[Category:2010 plays]] [[Category:Plays by Howard Brenton]] [[Category:400th anniversary of the King James Version]] [[Category:Plays set in London]] [[Category:Fiction set in the 1530s]] [[Category:Fiction set in 1603]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Henry VIII]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn]] [[Category:Plays set in the 16th century]] [[Category:Plays set in the 17th century]] [[Category:Biographical plays about English royalty]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of James VI and I]] [[Category:Plays about ghosts]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Francis I of France]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Thomas More]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Catherine of Aragon]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Jane Seymour]] [[Category:Cultural depictions of Cardinal Wolsey]]