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Theatre listings > A Man For All Seasons. - Tour. Playwright - Robert Bolt. Director - Michael Rudman. Designer - Paul Farnsworth. Lighting - Nick Richings. Producer - Bill Kenwright Company Website. Cast - here . 2005 Tour Dates and Times - here . Seen to review at Kings Theatre Glasgow on 23 November 2005 - matinee performance. Run Time - 2 hours 40 mins including an interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. A play in its season. What happens when you have a conscience? King Henry the VIII and Sir Thomas More, his Chancellor, both have one. Unfortunately this means that Henry finds his subjects only too willing to twist and turn the law and themselves so that a once powerful man finds his head on the block. Though based by Robert Bolt pretty accurately on the historical events, A Man For All Seasons premiered in 1960 has become a play performed in all seasons though some it suits better than others. This is such a season after this UK run Bill Kenwright is taking his commercial production into the West End. With Martin Shaw delivering a well portrayed Sir Thomas More, the man who became a saint 400 years after his death, the production is served up under Michael Rudman's tight direction by a well balanced cast. Paul Farnsworth's multi-level set and costumes and Nick Richings' lighting give a feel of those far off times that enables them to feel current. We have Tony Bell as the engaging Common Man, in effect "us" up there on stage, getting enmeshed in unworthy events, ordered about by his masters and government officials, though at the end of the play a little less clowning might not go amiss. While Alison Fiske's a wonderful gruff Alice, More's loving and thrawn wife. Their daughter is played by Sophie Shaw with understanding of the awful pure love daughters sometimes bear their fathers. As the king with the careless air of the person at the top of the pile of power, Daniel Flynn charms but doesn't quite convince as regards the man who feels his 20 year old marriage is against morality - he married his brother's widow. If this English history is foreign to you - the moderately expensive programme - £3 in Glasgow - will fill you in with brief bios of the key personages appearing in the play. If you don't bone up before hand you may find yourself slightly wondering about the detail of what is going on, especially if you're not up on religious knowledge either. Whatever you bring to it there's no escaping this tale has some increasingly troubling modern parallels. It's a production to enjoy the playing of, and to argue afterwards. Were More or Henry right or were the people in between right to be pragmatic rather than principled? At the beginning of the second act The Common Man catches us up with what has happened during the interval, and speaking of that time comments that then "imprisonment without trial was common practice". A warning or an example of where we may go? The matinee audience, often thought, possibly wrongly, to be the most conservative, clearly hoped the powers that be may realise some things are too precious to subvert, even legally. By the play's end you may find, as I did, tears for then and for now come to your eyes. © Thelma Good 24 November 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - Sir Thomas More - Martin Shaw, The Common Man - Tony Bell, Alice More - Alison Fiske, Margaret More - Sophie Shaw, Richard Rich - Gregory Fox-Murphy, Will Roper - John Sackville, Chapuys - Clive Kneller, Cromwell - Clive Carter, Norfolk - Paul Shelley, Henry VIII - Daniel Flynn, Cardinal Wolsey - Brian Poyser, Cranmer - Tim Frances, The Woman - Maev Alexander and Chapuys' Attendant - Tim Daish. 2005 Tour Details of Bill Kenwright's production of A Man For All Seasons . Tour begins 31 Oct to 5 Nov Mon-Sat 20:00. Wed & Sat Mats 14:30 Malvern Theatres 01684 892 277. 7 Nov to 12 Nov Mon-Sat 19:30. Thu, Sat Mats 14:00 Southampton Mayflower 023 8071 1811. 14 Nov to 19 Nov Mon-Sat 19:30. Wed & Sat Mats 14:30 Wolverhampton Grand Theatre 01902 429 212. 21 Nov to 26 Nov Mon-Sat 19:30. Thu, Sat 14:30 Glasgow Theatre Royal 0141 240 1133. 28 Nov to 3 Dec Mon-Sat 19:30. Wed 14:00. Sat Mats 14:30 Nottingham Theatre Royal 0115 989 5555. 5 Dec to 10 Dec Mon-Wed 19:30. Thu-Sat 20:00. Wed & Sat Mat 14:30. Theatre Royal, Bath 01225 448 844. Tour ends and production goes into London's West End. 21 Dec 2005 Opens 3 Jan 2006 - 1 April 2006 at Mon – Sat 7:45pm Matinees: Thurs & Sat 3:00pm London, Haymarket, Theatre Royal, West End 0870 4000 626 (Bkg fee applies). Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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