Theatre review: Anne Boleyn, Edinburgh Festival Theatre

The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, is one of them; and so is the beheading, at the Tower Of London in 1536, of the beautiful Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII – even if most of those who shudder at the place where she died have only a hazy grasp of the reasons for her rise and fall.

There’s no such vagueness, though, from the bold Howard Brenton, whose acclaimed historical drama Anne Boleyn – written for Shakespeare’s Globe in London in 2010 – plays at the Festival Theatre this week. Once known as a radical and controversial figure in 1970s British theatre, Brenton appears here in relatively conventional form, producing a lavish costume drama full of the kind of theatrical smart talk – witty, allusive, slightly anachronistic – that makes audiences laugh, not always to any great purpose.

Yet Brenton remains a fiercely political playwright; and what he gives us in Anne Boleyn is a multi-layered view of the intense religious conflicts of the 16th century, filtered through a flashback structure in which we see Anne’s restless spirit still alive today, and her legacy re-examined and partly honoured, 70 years after her death, by the new Scots King in London, James I and VI.

So in Brenton’s play, King Henry’s sexual obsession with Anne – and with his need for a male heir – becomes a force that drives forward the English Reformation, and the strengthening of the English state; but not without some real agency from Anne herself, brilliantly played by Jo Herbert as a passionate and clever young woman who loved the king, but was also secretly devoted to the Protestant cause, and to the end of papal power in England.

For my taste, Brenton’s version dwells a little too much on King James – portrayed in James Garnon’s bravura but excessive performance as a distractingly strange, twitching figure – and not enough on Henry, a hugely complex king reduced here to a handsome 40-year-old in love with his new wife.

Yet there’s no doubt that John Dove’s eloquent and flowing production offers a superb evening’s entertainment, for those who enjoy gripping drama, fine words, and generous production values. There’s singing, dancing, and a three-strong live band in the minstrels’ gallery; there’s a cast of 19 fine actors on stage. And behind it all, there’s a reminder that for England as for Scotland, the idea of the Protestant faith was one of the foundations on which the modern nation was built; a thought to conjure with, as we move forward into a new age of fundamentalism, and of politics which ruthlessly uses religion, as both pretext and excuse.

• Until 12 May

Rating: ****