King Henry VIII - All Is True

Sunday 28th February

Blimey! We were a little late in starting this reading because there were forty five parts to distrubute. Only one of our readers knew the play and so it was a bit of a lottery as to who read what. Amazingly there was only one really messy scene where one poor chap had to talk to himself as two different characters. Each reader (this excludes the listeners) had about three parts. Often, with no credit to Shakespeare, these readings are the funniest. A play no one knows and each reader supporting split personalities brings an element of humour to a reader's characterisation of a role. Dave Blatcher's Cardinal Campeins was dark and slimey, and a world away from his chirpy cockney town crier. As for Claire Daniels' Lord Abergavenny... well I can say little more than he was a stark contrast to her Anne Bullen.

Nevertheless Henry VIII is a bit of a dull play to read. There are some moments of pure poetry and Katherine gets some really juicy bits. Favourite line of the night: 'My drops of tears / I'll turn to sparks of fire', lovely. However, it is pomp and pagentry that this play is famous for. We weren't really kitted out in the finery required to support the stunning visual elements of the play. The play is full of Tudor properganda and the end, a long speech about Elizabeth I, is totally vomit worthy.

I prefer my political plays when the plotters don't suddenly repent all their sins and are repainted as saints gone awry by the characters who live on after their death. This maybe because I lack subtlty, but if Wolsey had been a Richard of Gloucester well then what a story that would have been...

Our ceremonious readers were:

Prologue - Brian Eastty
Duke of Norfolk - Ryan Nelson
Duke of Buckingham - Martin Power
Lord Abergavenny - Claire Daniel
Cardinal Wolsey - Edward Cartwright
Secretary -
Brandon - John Haney
Sargeant - at - arms - Maya Gabrielle
King Henry VIII - Thomas Rushforth
Sir Thomas Lovell - Maya Gabrielle
Katherine - Janet Low
Duke of Suffolk - Ed Kelly
Surveyor - Maya Gabrielle
Lord Chamberlain -
Lord Sandys - John Haney
Anne Bullen - Claire Daniel
Sir Henry Guildford - Brian Eastty
Servant - Clare Scammell
First Gent - Thomas Rushforth
Second Gent - Clare Scammell
Sir Nicholas Vaux - Paul O'Neil
Cardinal Campeins - David Blatcher
Gardiner - Ed Kelly
Old Lady - Janet Low
Bishop of Lincoln - Claire Daniel
Griffith - Maya Gabrielle
Scribe - Ryan Nelson
Crier - David Blatcher
Earl of Surrey - Brian Eastty
Thomas Cromwell - Paul O'Neil
Woman - Maya Gabrielle
Lord Chancellor - Martin Power
Garter - Claire Daniel
Third Gent - Claire Daniel
Patience - John Haney
Messenger - Thomas Rushforth
Lord Caputius - Paul O'Neil
Gardiner's Page -
Sir Anthony Denny - Edward Cartwright
Thomas Cranmer - Paul O'Neil
Door Keeper - Ed Kelly
Doctor Butts - David Blatcher
Porter -
Porter's man - Paul O'Neil
Epilogue - Brian Eastty

To mark our penultimate reading in the cycle we had a misadventure. One of our readers, the unfortunate Martin Power, was in the toilet when we left the bookshop and he emerged to find all the lights switched off and that he had been locked in! Thank goodness he had the where withall to telephone his wife, who telephoned the pub where we always drink after a reading and ask for me. I immediatly sprinted back to the bookshop and let him out. He needed a stiff drink after contemplating spending night in a bookshop full of tomes expounding the secrects of the occult and dark magic.

Our next and final reading in the first cycle of Shakespeare Readers' Society is on Sunday 28th March, the play is Two Nobel Kinsman. This play isn't in some complete works, so there will be photocopied scripts available to read from if you don't have one to bring. For more details check the website: www.shakespearereaderssociety.co.uk