Henry VIII

Synopsis: Video recording, using a single, fixed, camera, of the 1983 Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Henry VIII. Directed by Howard Davies and David Edgar with Richard Griffiths as Henry VIII and John Thaw as Wolsey. The production offered a Brechtian interpretation with deliberate anachronisms, inviting comparisons between Henry’s regime and that of Stalin’s.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 19 Jan 1984
Duration: 196 mins

Director

David Edgar; Howard Davies

Writer

William Shakespeare

Music

Ilona Sekacz

Production Design

Hayden Griffin

Costume

Deirdre Clancy

Cast

Richard Griffiths	King Henry VIII
Gemma Jones	Queen Katherine
Richard O’Callaghan	Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
John Thaw	Cardinal Wolsey
Sarah Berger	Anne Boleyn
Bruce Alexander	Duke of Norfolk
Campbell Morrison	Sergeant-at-Arms
Caroline Harris	Anne’s lady (Courtier)
Charles Lawson	Gentleman (2)
Christopher Neame	Lord Sandys
Clyde Pollitt	Griffith
Clyde Pollitt	Surveyor
Cyril Nri	Courtier
Cyril Nri	Gentleman (3)
David Schofield	Duke of Buckingham
Eileen Page	Patience
Eileen Page	Courtier
Emma Watson	Courtier
Geoffrey Beevers	Lord Chamberlain
Henry Goodman	Sir Thomas Lovell
John Dicks	Duke of Suffolk
John Nolan	Archbishop
John Nolan	Lord Mayor/Courtier/Captain
John Nolan	Lord Abergavenny
Lesley Duff	Courtier
Martin Milman	Gentleman (1)
Nigel Cooke	Courtier
Nigel Cooke	Earl of Surrey
Oliver Ford Davies	Gardiner, later Bishop of Winchester
Paul Greenwood	Thomas Cromwell
Paul Mooney	Porter’s Man
Paul Mooney	Courtier/Soldier
Richard Garnett	Messenger/Courtier
Richard Garnett	Brandon
Richard O’Callaghan	Courtier
Roger Hume	Cardinal Campeius
Roger Hume	Porter
Sheridan Ball	Courtier
Stanley Page	Bishop of Lincoln

General: Ilona Sekacz composed a pastiche of Kurt Weill for the production to match Davies’ Brechtian interpretation.
History: Press night 14 June 1983
Stills: Stills from, and design notes on, the production are available on the Arts and Humanities Performing Arts Data Service (AHDS) at http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/designing-shakespeare.htm
Reviews: McCullough, Christopher J. ‘From Brecht to Brechtian: Estrangement and Appropriation’ in Holderness, Graham (ed). Politics of Theatre and Drama (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1992), pp120-3. [Uses John Barton’s Richard II and Howard Davies’s Henry VIII to illustrate how the term "Brechtian" has been used to describe plays by someone other than Brecht.]

Name: Royal Shakespeare Company
Web: https://www.rsc.org.uk External site opens in new window
Address: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
CV37 6BB

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