1536 – Ambassador’s Theatre
In 1536 Anne Boleyn, then married to Henry VIII, was accused of treason, locked up in the Tower of London and subsequently executed. Her only real crime, not providing an heir. From the publicity material surrounding this play you would think that that is what it is going to be about. It is not.
The setting is a village in Essex, in a small clearing with a large tree stump and tall grasses. Here three village women, Anna, Jane and Mariella, live out their intertwined lives in a highly patrimonial society where women's status and lives count for little. They hear the stories of the arrest and fate of the Queen which they can scarcely credit, but it has little relevance to their lives. Or does it? In their rural microcosm they are subjected to the same misogyny and arbitrary male decision...
