A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn
dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorious second
wife, who helped change the course of the nation's history.
Premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010.
Best New Play, Whatsonstage. com Awards
Traditionally
seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the
King's bed or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne Â-
and her ghost Â- are seen in a very different light in Howard
Brenton's epic play.
Rummaging through the dead Queen
Elizabeth's possessions upon coming to the throne in 1603, King
James I finds alarming evidence that Anne was a religious
conspirator, in love with Henry VIII but also with the most
dangerous ideas of her day. She comes alive for him, a brilliant but
reckless young woman confident in her sexuality, whose marriage and
death transformed England for ever.
'This is no dry and dusty
history lesson... a witty and engrossing impression of the times
that gave birth to our first Elizabethan age, and the subsequent
reformation' British Theatre Guide
'The play bursts
through the constraints of costume drama'The Independent
'What an absolute delight... a beautifully-written piece of
theatre that instantly draws you in into the life and times of both
Anne Boleyn and King James I' Whatsonstage. com
