Roger Clark as King Henry VIII and Thomas Michael Hammond as Sir Thomas More. Photo by Avery Brunkus.
OK – England’s King Henry VIII needs a son to be heir to his throne in the 1530s. His wife Catherine cannot produce one. His love for Catherine has diminished and the lovely, young Anne Bolyn has charmed him considerably over the recent past. So, he wants to divorce Catherine and marry Anne.
Not so simple. Henry needs the approval of the Pope, who refuses to give it. Henry turns to his adviser and Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, looking for a “legal” approval for the divorce, but More refuses to do so, sort of. He tells the King that by not actually saying not to do it, his silence means don’t do it. The King and his advisors insist that the silence just means, well, no opinion. So, the King can do it, right?
Here is where Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons begins. Everybody is distraught and has no idea how to solve the problem.
The folks at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, at Drew University, Madison, where the play just opened, don’t know how to solve it, either. Their version of A Man for All Seasons is in the rainy season.
The play is, indeed, in the rainy season because all is a torrential downpour of emotion that creates a lot of strong feelings and big water puddles of trouble, very much unexplained trouble. This rain creates a lot of mud, as in muddled production. It is the theatrical rainy season, all right.
King Henry VIII’s main problem is not presented well. There is a lineup as long as lines at subway stops of friends of the King, and of More, who try to explain the problem but don’t really do so. The trouble is that they all rant for the sake of hearing themselves rant. They all give the same speech, again and again and again, doing nothing more than fill up time.
Oh, come on, Thomas More, give in!
Thomas Michael Hammond as Sir Thomas More and Raphael Nash Thompson as Cardinal Wolsey. Photo by Avery Brunkus.
More remains a strong and steadfast man who will not surrender his principals to the Royal Court. He maintains a silence about his silence, too.
You sit there for hours wondering where this is all going and, really, do not find out. I said earlier that the play is muddled. It is really, really muddled. The key question here for More, for all of us, is do we stand fast on principle when just about everybody disagrees with us and we risk serious trouble for ourselves because of our stand?
The drifting play is not the fault of the actors in it, male and female, who all do superb work. Thomas Michael Hammond is wonderful as the much-conflicted Sir Thomas More. He maintains his stoic, heroic personality throughout the play. Also impressive are Anthony Marble as the Duke of Norfolk, Mary Stillwaggon Stewart as Alice More, James McMenamin as Thomas Cromwell, and Roger Clark as the King. Others in the cast, who also do fine work, are Edward Furs, Kevin Isola, Ty Lane, Sean Mahan, Brianna Martinez, Aaron McDaniel, Henry David Silberstein and Rafael Nash Thompson. The play’s director is Paul Mullins.
The cast of A Man for All Seasons. Photo by Avery Brunkus.
The trouble here in not so merry old England is the script itself. Robert Bolt got carried away and has half of England on Sir Thomas More’s back – unfairly so. The performers just go on and on about their dislike for the brave and bold More – a nonstop flogging. There is little to be said for him except what he says. What Sir Thomas Nore really needed was a good lawyer. The attorneys on the Law-and-Order TV show would tear King VIII to shreds.
Now, I must say that act two was much better than act one. In it, we get a bit more rational dialogue and more love between More and his wife and family. The playwright should have switched acts.
You think the politics in our House of Representatives over the new Speaker of its House election are brutal? You should have been in London back in the 1530s!
A Man For All Seasons runs at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey from October 24 - November 5, 2023. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
Kevin Isola as The Common Man and Aaron McDaniel as Richard Rich. Photo by Avery Brunkus.
