Little Baddow Drama Club
November 20 2010
Jim Hutchon was at the opening night for the Chelmsford Weekly News:
Mary Redman was at the last night:
Ken Rolf’s moving production of Katherine Howard’s eventful two-year royal career succeeding Anne of Cleves was shot through with real scholarship and drama, the well-dressed cast working seamlessly to recreate the dangerous path of Royal entanglements.
Katherine Howard was played with a nice mix of modesty and honesty by Sara Thompson, the devious Cranmer by Paul Randall as a satisfyingly slimy schemer, and Norfolk by John Peregrine, able to turn his coat with the speed of light when necks were on the line. Dan Ford was convincing as Katherine’s previous lover Culpeper to whom she lost her heart then her head.
Memorable moments included the anatomy lesson from a tactful Lady Jane Rochford (played with style and drama by Vicki Tropman) to the naïve dumpling Anne of Cleves (Catherine Bailey), where she likens little boys’ tassels to a seed drill… “When they can become very fierce!”
In a series of beautifully-modulated soliloquies, Michael Gray gradually unpeeled the human being in love behind the picture we have of the spiteful, bad-tempered, tyrant Henry VIII.
The set was dominated by an enormous curtained box taking up most of the stage, which doubled as a chapel, wedding four-poster and execution chamber, and was simply in the way for the rest of the play. The action, which should have taken place in spacious and sumptuous state rooms, seemed confined to surreptitious meetings in dark corridors in the spaces round the box.
Mary Redman was at the last night:
William Nicholson's play about the April-September marriage of both convenience and love between the oh-so-honest Katherine Howard and King Henry VIII came to me as a big surprise in many senses.
First I was surprised by the black and bleak humour of the piece as well as the tragedy of this hastily arranged marriage propelled forward by Katherine's weaselly uncle Thomas and his cohorts of plotters for control of the King/state religion. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
Then there was the honesty. From Sara Thompson's utterly delightful Kate whose truth both captivated the King and condemned her to the lonely executioner's block. Honesty too, from the playwright and Michael Gray as a Henry revealing the extent of his mortality and humanity combined with the burdens of state. The wedding night scene between the grumpy Henry and Catherine Bailey's dimly stolid Anne of Cleves with her cackling sense of humour, was a prizewinner for the tongue-in-cheek comedy of its direction and acting. I shan't easily forget the image of the two of them sitting bolt upright and poker faced in bed as the officials fussed around them.
Honesty also tore Katherine and Dan Ford's Thomas Culpeper apart and the scene when the two physically tortured characters appeared was moving and a sharp reminder that some things never change in many hundreds of years. We are constantly shown things in the news nowadays that speak of unchanging brutality and violence against the person, by using "instruments" as William, Cranmer's secretary, describes them and Henry bitterly spits out.
John Peregrine's Duke of Norfolk, Paul Randall's oily Cranmer and Trevor Edwards' cowardly Wriothesley made a fine trio of baddies. Life on stage for the other cast members would have been very much easier if Cranmer hadn't needed so many prompts. It really does put a strain on the others when they cannot rely on someone else's being strong on the words.
Vicky Tropman was smoothly splendid as the self-serving Lady Jane Rochford, easily used by Cranmer and co for their own ends, and shown up by her cry of desperation at her sentence of death.
Brian Greatrex's team including the highly-experienced Pam Brider came up with a splendid piece of ultra-heavyweight, oat-coloured cloth (normally used as an altar cloth I would have thought) to surround the bed of state. The executioner's block was a masterpiece of lighting and impact. Tony Brett's costumes, especially for Henry, could not be faulted for their magnificent impression, but in the small hall and with bright lighting some gaudy thin modern fabrics were all too obvious. We all know the economic reasons for this.
As to the whole of Ken's production it was the second highly impressive show I've seen this week. To combine seeing 84 Charing Cross Road [Hutton Players at Brentwood Theatre] and Katherine Howard was too much to expect. As critics we often sit through non-professional productions where good enough is good enough. To be privileged to sit through a production which has unfathomable depths of integrity, thought, careful attention to details including background music, and above all tender loving care is something rare.
First I was surprised by the black and bleak humour of the piece as well as the tragedy of this hastily arranged marriage propelled forward by Katherine's weaselly uncle Thomas and his cohorts of plotters for control of the King/state religion. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
Then there was the honesty. From Sara Thompson's utterly delightful Kate whose truth both captivated the King and condemned her to the lonely executioner's block. Honesty too, from the playwright and Michael Gray as a Henry revealing the extent of his mortality and humanity combined with the burdens of state. The wedding night scene between the grumpy Henry and Catherine Bailey's dimly stolid Anne of Cleves with her cackling sense of humour, was a prizewinner for the tongue-in-cheek comedy of its direction and acting. I shan't easily forget the image of the two of them sitting bolt upright and poker faced in bed as the officials fussed around them.
Honesty also tore Katherine and Dan Ford's Thomas Culpeper apart and the scene when the two physically tortured characters appeared was moving and a sharp reminder that some things never change in many hundreds of years. We are constantly shown things in the news nowadays that speak of unchanging brutality and violence against the person, by using "instruments" as William, Cranmer's secretary, describes them and Henry bitterly spits out.
John Peregrine's Duke of Norfolk, Paul Randall's oily Cranmer and Trevor Edwards' cowardly Wriothesley made a fine trio of baddies. Life on stage for the other cast members would have been very much easier if Cranmer hadn't needed so many prompts. It really does put a strain on the others when they cannot rely on someone else's being strong on the words.
Vicky Tropman was smoothly splendid as the self-serving Lady Jane Rochford, easily used by Cranmer and co for their own ends, and shown up by her cry of desperation at her sentence of death.
Brian Greatrex's team including the highly-experienced Pam Brider came up with a splendid piece of ultra-heavyweight, oat-coloured cloth (normally used as an altar cloth I would have thought) to surround the bed of state. The executioner's block was a masterpiece of lighting and impact. Tony Brett's costumes, especially for Henry, could not be faulted for their magnificent impression, but in the small hall and with bright lighting some gaudy thin modern fabrics were all too obvious. We all know the economic reasons for this.
As to the whole of Ken's production it was the second highly impressive show I've seen this week. To combine seeing 84 Charing Cross Road [Hutton Players at Brentwood Theatre] and Katherine Howard was too much to expect. As critics we often sit through non-professional productions where good enough is good enough. To be privileged to sit through a production which has unfathomable depths of integrity, thought, careful attention to details including background music, and above all tender loving care is something rare.
Thank you Ken, cast and crew.
