Shakespeare Globe

Henry VIII

by William Shakespeare

PRODUCTION NOW CLOSED

***** 'If the Globe had a roof, this production would surely have blown it off... Represents the theatre at its very best and makes for a joyous spectacle... Dominic Rowan plays the title role with charisma and vitality and Miranda Raison makes a beguiling Anne Boleyn... Shakespeare has seldom been performed with more verve' Sunday Telegraph

**** 'Rosenblatt and his fine cast bring out copious quantities of emotion and humour... I’ve rarely seen the Globe’s space used better than this. The designer Angela Davies rises to the challenge of a pageantry-rich play with aplomb... There is strong comic playing from Amanda Lawrence, Michael Bertenshaw and Sam Cox' The Times

'A production that clearly lays out the play's pageantry and political infighting... Dominic Rowan's Henry is one of the production's outstanding strengths... Ian McNeice also makes an excellent heavy-jowled Wolsey' The Guardian

'The Tudor costumes are sumptuous, while the big scenes prove genuinely spectacular... Dominic Rowan plays Henry VIII with wit, energy and sudden enlivening moments of menace; Kate Duchêne proves genuinely touching as the unhappy rejected Katherine, and Miranda Raison brings a welcome dash of sex appeal as Anne Boleyn. Best of all is Ian McNeice’s grotesque Cardinal Wolsey' Daily Telegraph

'Mark Rosenblatt’s sprightly, intelligent production... Undercutting the pageantry with a sort of Tudor version of The Thick of It' The Financial Times

'The production pulls all the stops out in a blaze of mitres, ivory silk, boy choristers in the gallery, and trumpet acclaim for the culminating baptism... Amanda Lawrence's triple whammy of splendid cameos... A trim, darkly handsome and enigmatic Dominic Rowan valuably keeps you guessing about the extent to which Henry is a conscious hypocrite... As Katherine of Aragon, Kate Duchêne is awesomely fiery and confrontational' The Independent

The Tudor Court is locked in a power struggle between its nobles and the Machiavellian Cardinal Wolsey, the King's first minister and the most conspicuous symbol of Catholic power in the land. Wolsey's ambition knows no bounds and when his chief ally, Queen Katherine, interferes in the King's romance with Ann Bullen, he brings gigantic ruin upon himself, the Queen and centuries of English obedience to Rome.

Famous in its own day as Shakespeare's most sumptuous and spectacular play, Henry VIII is a gorgeous pageant of masques and royal ceremony; a blaze of fireworks, cannonfire, red satin and cloth-of-gold. But within the passages of grandeur works the mind of the mature Shakespeare: psychological and political insight, language of great depth and power and, in the figures of Wolsey and Katherine, two of his most vivid and memorable characters.

Dominic Rowan was recently in The Misanthrope in the West End, and previously played Touchstone in As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2009.

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