Henry VIII

Play (1613)
by William Shakespeare
with the likely collaboration of John Fletcher

With Bobbie Steinbach (Fool, et al), Craig Mathers (Buckingham, et al), Michael Forden Walker (Norfolk, et al), Robert Walsh (Cardinal Wolsey), Johnnie McQuarley (Cromwell, et al), Ross MacDonald (Lovell, Cranmer, et al), Kathryn Myles (Anne Boleyn, et al), Allyn Burrows (King Henry VIII), Tamara Hickey (Queen Katherine), Chamberlain (Omar Robinson, et al)

The history is familiar. Henry VIII is married to Katherine of Aragon who – whoops – cannot seem to produce a male heir. Divorce is illegal in the Catholic Church, so Henry takes it upon himself to set up a different church so he can get rid of Katherine and marry her lovely handmaiden Anne Boleyn. Still no male heirs, but the Church of England is born. Cardinal Wolsey, a sharp ecclesiastical cookie, plays into all of this, but then gets played out himself. And Anne, as we know, produces a great girl who becomes Elizabeth I, but that is not enough for Henry who wants a son, resulting in his taking even sterner methods with her than he did with his first wife.

What a beautifully directed production this is. Tina Packer really works magic with this play, which has its moments, but is certainly not among Shakespeare’s memorable ones. It is likely that it was a collaboration between the Bard and John Fletcher and the mix and match quality is in evidence; the writing in the first half of the play is better than the writing in second half, which tends to be overly long and drawn out. Nonetheless, Packer’s direction keeps things lively and moving along.

Bobbie Steinbach, sprite extraordinaire at Actors’ Shakespeare Project, serves as the multipurpose Fool, providing pungent narration throughout; she sparkles with a mature wit.

Allyn Burrows is a dashing Henry, roguish, handsomely trim, and brusque without being boisterous, an obnoxious, but articulate, regent.

Costumes, by Tyler Kinney, are noticeably great in this show. It is one of the hallmarks of ASP productions that they produce great theater with relatively modest production values. Here, the brilliant costumes, inventive dancing and rousing music fill out the show admirably. Memorably, the show’s three women – the Fool (Bobbie Steinbach), Tamara Hickey (Queen Katherine), Anne Boleyn (Kathryn Miles) – sing a hauntingly beautiful trio together, and, at the end of the show, everyone comes out in groups, dancing and stamping, totally rousing.

A couple of years ago, director Tina Packer did her Women of Will show at the Central Square Theater. It was both a tour de force of acting and a great opportunity to hear Packer’s views on Shakespeare’s evolving views of women. Having seen that, the way that she paints the mature and forthright Katherine in Henry VIII makes a great deal of sense.

Tamara Hickey, as Katherine, is spectacularly sharp and heart wrenching, particularly in her soliloquies about Henry’s brutal abandonment. She really pulls out the emotional stops and gives it a ferocious whirl which Packer’s distinctively forceful vision helps to shape.

Kathryn Miles is the lovely Boleyn, a more muted presence, but Packer makes the two of these queens, along with Steinbach’s Fool, into a united female presence. This play, superficially about Henry’s dastardliness, is more centrally a story about Katherine’s articulated rage as a voice for women generally, and Packer plays it to the hilt.

A good number of ASP veterans were on hand for this outing, including Robert Walsh, who, decked in regal and bloody red, played a haughty and officious, then a gut-wrenching and despairing, Wolsey.

Omar Robinson was really outstanding as Chamberlain. He was beautifully histrionic and it really worked here.

Michael Forden Walker was a reliable and distinguished Norfolk and Johnnie McQuarley (who stepped in heroically and capably at the last minute in a production of David Mamet’s Race at the New Repertory Theatre last season) played a variety of roles dutifully.

Interestingly, though the play has some beautiful soliloquies, its plodding execution in the latter half drags down its overall reputation. But this production is so beautifully directed and conceived, its stagecraft so artfully done, that the overall effect is mesmerizing, the ASP at its very best. Done on a thrust stage at the Modern Theater, the setup was perfect – intimate, involving, and penetrating.

– BADMan