Review: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies

Wolf Hall

A novel like Wolf Hall, with its 650 pages and complex layers of narrative, intricate family trees and often almost esoteric detail wouldn’t be most people’s first choice for stage adaptation, but the new production at the RSC adapted by Mike Poulton is almost perfect.

Bringing to life such a complicated story which spans roughly eight years is no mean feat and at times the play does suffer from the wealth of its detailed source material. There are nearly 40 characters in all, and with only 21 actors this means that many of the lesser roles are often doubled up.

While at first this is confusing, once the separate characters are firmly established it makes for an interesting comparison of the relationships between characters and the undercurrents hinted at in the novel. For example, Cromwell’s wife and Mary Boleyn are both played by the brilliant Olivia Darnley, and the romantic elements of their respective relationships with Cromwell become more apparent through this connection.

At the centre of the play is the narrator, the often historically maligned Thomas Cromwell. Ben Miles in the role excels in portraying the complexity of his inner life, as expressed in the novel, as well as burning with an almost fierce intelligence. Every character revolves around him and his machinations drive the plot, but despite this Miles succeeds in showing a man who remains ultimately isolated, constantly skirting around danger and risking everything.

The world of the court that Cromwell lives in is vivid despite being simply lit by David Plater and Paule Constable. They cleverly adopt stark white lights, which are constantly elevated with the fires burning at the back of the stage act as ever present reminder of the danger characters face. Cardinal Wolsey (Paul Jesson) is the first victim of Henry’s increasingly impossible demands and as his faith in his own influence becomes increasingly misguided, the true danger of Henry VII’s court becomes increasingly transparent. The warning example of his death sentence is as moving as it is due to Jesson’s efforts to portray Cromwell as a rounded and somewhat misunderstood character behind the flat stereotypes of his enemies. His larger than life presence remains on stage even after his death through his appearances as a ghost.

Although Wolf Hall is generally considered to be the weaker of the two novels, the adaptation manages to avoid the majority of the issues that could have plagued it to create a tight, tense production.

Bring Up the Bodies

The sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies is a faster, tighter and shorter novel with the action reduced to span only one year – between 1535 and 1536. It manages to avoid the main pitfalls of Wolf Hall as the characters in Bring Up the Bodies are well established so the audience doesn’t need to be reminded who’s who and long periods of exposition are unnecessary. However, the action does take a while to truly begin. Once it does though, Bring Up the Bodies proves, just like its literary counterpart, to be the better of the two works.

Anne Boleyn, played by Lydia Leonard, stands out from the beginning, with her superficial cool exterior hiding an increasing desperation as the play unfolds. Her final moments of triumph are short-lived, and as the tide begins turning, her panic is barely contained. Henry’s future wife, Jane Seymour (played by Leah Brotherhead, who also plays Henry’s first daughter Lady Mary and Anne Boleyn’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Worcester) begins with an almost impossible timidity but shows sparks of dark wit and sharp understanding, fitting in with Mantel’s depiction of her as shrewdly observant and very clever, rather than the traditional image of the meek and mild third wife.

The religious elements of the play that come in with Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell’s joint aim of reformation are perhaps neglected, and towards the end the continual plotting begins to become slightly repetitive. As Cromwell’s plots come to fruition, however, the play shifts to become morbidly fascinating and the final scenes are filled with pathos despite the previous behaviour of the victims.

Ben Miles continues to expertly play the protagonist as he develops into an anti-heroic role, while the surrounding cast is uniformly strong. Henry VIII himself (Nathaniel Parker) is a man with almost infinite power whose favour is shown to be a double edged sword (literally by the end) and whose paralysing indecision adds to the sense of danger. The world they create is vivid, morally repellent, and completely engrossing.

Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies are playing at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon- Avon, until 29 March 2014 and future performances are expected.