Among the abounding villains and backstabbers of the Tudor age stands Thomas More, a good man who dared to take a silent stand against King Henry VIII. But Robert Bolt’s play shows that being good could be just as dangerous for one’s head.
This 1960 drama, which takes us through More’s last years, was immensely successful in its time, transferring to Broadway and adapted for film with Paul Scofield. Jonathan Church’s new touring production is smart and handsome but feels like an old-fashioned history play, creaky in parts though still an ultimately moving portrait of quiet heroism.
When More refuses to endorse Henry’s divorce to Catherine of Aragon (in order to marry Anne Boleyn), the king’s ruthlessness meets the chancellor’s intransigent goodness and the latter travels inevitably towards the chopping block.
More is adeptly played by Martin Shaw, though his performance is not quite as penetrating as Scofield’s in the 1966 film. He begins with an authoritative air and an edge of irascibility but becomes more humbly heroic as the play progresses, appearing physically more crumpled but maintaining an integrity until the end.
The story focuses on More’s arguments that, as Lord Chancellor, he cannot endorse Henry’s divorce because God’s law (via the pope) cannot be trumped by the king’s human-made law in matters of matrimony. There is chicanery and manipulation from More’s central antagonist, Thomas Cromwell (Edward Bennett). “In my silence lies my safety,” says More, but silence is used against him by Cromwell, who calls it treasonous protest, and there are some good verbal volleys between the two.
Cromwell is very much the enforcer and spy-master on the make, calling himself the “king’s ear”, and referred to, fabulously, as “a jackal with sharp teeth”. Bennett makes a good bully although Cromwell is not yet quite the glinting super-villain of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. There are others who betray More such as the cravenly ambitious Richard Rich (Calum Finlay) and his former friend, Norfolk (Timothy Watson).
The second half is more pensive as we are shown the effect of More’s stand on his family. While he cleaves to the belief that he is safe in his silence, his wife, Alice (Abigail Cruttenden), and daughter, Margaret (Annie Kingsnorth), fear the worst. The family’s final meeting in More’s prison cell inside the tower is moving and shows the price of his sacrifice on his family.
Gary Wilmot is entertaining in numerous cockney roles – from More’s steward, Matthew, to boatman, jailer and executioner – mischievously announcing the new part every time. His performance sparkles the most, even if he is providing mere comic relief.
Simon Higlett’s set design conjures the period, visually, in its stark, dark, wood-panelled backdrop which brings the immaculate historical details of the costumes into relief. But the pacing slows and the shadow of bigger, faster-moving subsequent Tudor stories of stage and screen looms large.
