Celebrating the Lives of Artists We've Lost

Whenever a famous performing artist or celebrity dies, there is the inevitable sadness that accompanies the announcement of their passing. In recent weeks, four people who made an impact in their artistic field died. All of them lived into their 90's. I would like to suggest that instead of mourning their loss we should celebrate their longevity and rejoice in the contributions they made to their art.

Deanna Durbin - 1921-2013 - 91.  Miss Durbin was a brilliant coloratura singer when she was signed by MGM at the age of 13. She was paired with another 13-year-old, Judy Garland, in a one-reel short, "Every Sunday"in which she sang classical music and Miss Garland sang swing. Shortly afterwards her contract was not renewed.  Signed by Universal she became a popular star in her first film, "Three Smart Girls."  However, she became disillusioned by Hollywood when she became typecast as the girl who solved problems for the grown-ups in her life. In 1949, she married her third husband, French director Charles David, who had directed her in one of her few more adult roles in "Lady on a Train." She retired to France, raised her children and rarely gave interviews for the rest of her life. Miss Durbin was brilliant singer and actress, who frustrated by the constraints of Hollywood stereotyping, she found a way for a happily-ever-after in the French countryside.

Frederick Franklin - 1914-2013 - 98.  Mr. Franklin was a British-born ballet dancer who made an impact on the world of classical dance throughout his life.  He not only was a dancer and choreographer, but also the founder of several dance companies. In his later life he became the crucial preserver of the original choreography of "Giselle," which he staged for Dance Theatre of Harlem in an updated setting in the Creole culture of Louisiana. He also memorably remounted Michel Fokine's 1910 "Scheherazade"on DTH. I had the privilege of seeing the production at the Kennedy Center. It was announced before the curtain rose that Mr. Franklin would substitute that night in the role of the Chief Eunuch. I distinctly remember the audience members around me saying "Who is Freddy Franklin?" My response was elation as I knew exactly who he was.  Into his 90's Mr. Franklin continued to dance. I once again had the privilege of seeing him dance the role of Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet with American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Franklin was a treasure to the classical ballet world.

Ray Harryhausen - 1920-2013 - 92. Mr. Harryhausen was the most brilliant stop motion special effects artist working in film. There will never be another artist like him, yet his influence on modern film special effects remains. From the famous skeleton fight in "Jason and the Argonauts" to the many dinosaurs he animated for such films as "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" and "One Million Years, B.C." to the original, and in my opinion vastly superior, 1981 "Clash of the Titans," Mr. Harryhausen's painstaking frame-by-frame work was sheer genius.  His development of the Dynamation technique which allowed his creations to appear as though they were a natural part of the story, whether walking behind trees or fighting the actors. Mr. Harryhausen's work led to a well deserved Academy Award for technical achievement in 1992. If it existed in real life, I'd say we all head to "Monsters, Inc.'s" Harryhausen restaurant to give Mr. Harryhausen a proper wake.

Merrill Brockway - 1923-2013 - 90.  Mr. Brockway was responsible for producing the PBS series "Dance in America" which brought dance by the leading companies in the United States to a broadcast audience. He also produced "Camera 3" a half-hour program broadcast on CBS on Sunday mornings from 1967- 1975 that was devoted to culture. Taking a cue from Fred Astaire films and the advice of George Balanchine  "Dance in America" was known for showing the dancers in full-body shots. Without him, many people outside of New York and the major touring cities might not have had a chance to see the works of such amazing choreographers as Balanchine, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, etc., etc. etc. Mr. Brockway received two Emmy Awards and two awards from the Directors' Guild of America. Bravo and thank you.

As a postscript, I'd like to add one more person to this list. She didn't make it to her 90's, but, in my opinion, her contributions to her art, deserve the same accolades.

Jeanne Cooper - 1928-2013 - 84. Miss Cooper is the last of the Soap Opera grande dames. It is true that there are many actors in daytime drama that are superstars, but Miss Cooper was the last one of her character type.  The longest serving member of the cast of "The Young and the Restless," Miss Cooper began her tenure six months into the show's run in 1973. She played Katherine Shepherd Reynolds Chancellor, Thurston, Sterling, Murphy, the wealthy older woman who was in a triangle with the younger, poorer Jill Foster and her then-husband, Philip Chancellor.  Over the decades, Miss Cooper was rarely on the back burner portraying story lines that involved  alcoholism, kidnappings, many, many marriages.  In other words, par for the course. What made Miss Cooper so enduring was her willingness to incorporate events in her own life into Katherine's story. Most famously this included the actress' facelift, shown on camera in 1984. Miss Cooper was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2004. She then, deservedly, won the Outstanding Performance by a Leading Actress in a Daytime Drama Emmy in 2008.  She was 80 when she won.  Outside the word of daytime drama, she was best known as the mother of actor Corbin Bernsen. To her fans she will always be the irreplaceable Mrs. Chancellor.

May all these artists rest in peace knowing that their impact on the world of the performing arts will endure.

Breakfast at Tiffany's at the Cort Theatre --- What Went Wrong

I am dropping the third person "writing a review" persona on this post.  I saw Breakfast at Tiffany's on Sunday, April 14, 2013. The show closed one week later on April 21, 2013.  This will serve as a critique of the script and the production rather than a more traditional review.  As the show has closed I will reveal several plot points that in other circumstances would be considered spoilers.

Truman Capote wrote his novella in 1958.  Set in the middle of the second World War it is the narrated tale of Holly Golightly, a teenage girl from a poor, rural background, who ran away first to Hollywood and then to New York, where she makes a living as an entertaining companion to wealthy men.  Mr. Capote preferred that Holly not be seen as a call girl or prostitute, but as an American Geisha. Made into a very popular film in 1961 that updated the setting to the then present day, and gave the narrator and Holly a bittersweet romance and a happily ever after, the film version has become the iconic version of the story, preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.  Audrey Hepburn is forever Holly, although she was not really what Capote intended. (He famously wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the part).

Theatrically the novella has been adapted several times, most notably in a mid-60's Broadway musical that closed after only four performances.  The current attempts to dramatize the story led to a script by Samuel Adamson for a 2009 production at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London and the now closed 2013 Broadway production with a script by Richard Greenberg.  So, what went wrong with the latest adaptation?  Why couldn't Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke sell enough tickets to keep the show going through awards season?

Mr. Greenberg's script is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie in its structure.  It is a memory play recalled by the narrator (Cory Michael Smith), named Fred by Holly and Joe the bartender (George Wendt).  Joe and Fred have always wondered what happened to Holly when she vanished in 1944 and a photograph from present day Africa gives the men hope that she is alive and well.  Flashing back to 1943, Fred, an aspiring writer, moves into a tiny brownstone apartment.  One night, a young woman crawls into his room through the fire escape.  Young Holly Golightly is fleeing one of her clients.  The two strike up a friendship, with Fred developing a crush on Holly.

We are introduced to several characters, including tenants of the brownstone, Holly's former Hollywood agent, her suitors and a rival. When I watched the Broadway production I was struck by the number of secondary and tertiary characters played by the ensemble of twelve actors.  And here is where the first problem with the script occurs.  Hardly any of these secondary characters is fleshed out into a three-dimensional human being.  We don't care about her wealthy suitor Rusty Trawler and when he up and marries Holly's friend and rival Mag Wildwood, there isn't enough dramatic tension for the audience to sympathize with Holly's emotional fury at Mag's betrayal.  The same occurs during her romance with the diplomat Jose.  Even Joe the bartender, who from his appearance in the opening scene leads you to believe that he will play an important supportive role to the two leading characters, barely makes an appearance in the rest of the show.  If Mr. Greenberg had reduced the number of Capote's characters so that the important ones to the story could have a more meaningful existence than the play might have been a more compelling drama.

The narrator, who never reveals his real name, seems to be content to be known by the name bestowed upon him by Holly in honor of her beloved brother. Fred is a bit of an enigma.  He is not the gigolo portrayed by George Peppard in the 1961 film.  Capote hints that he is homosexual and the play does show him being propositioned by a potential employer and being fired from his magazine job for seeking bathroom encounters with men.  But, this comes off in the play as superficial.  We are never allowed to see what makes Fred really tick.  His romance with Holly, when it happens, doesn't have the emotional punch that it should.  Mr. Smith was perfectly adequate given the limitations of the script.

This leads us to Holly.  As portrayed by Emilia Clarke she had the right youthful look and the actress was absolutely stunning in Colleen Atwood's 1940's costumes.  Yet, something was off.  She does not have the problem that Audrey Hepburn had of being too sophisticated to pull off the country hick from Texas masquerading as a posh good time girl.   Ms. Clarke can play a wide range of emotions, simply witness her character's arc from child bride to warrior queen on Game of Thrones. As Holly Golightly Ms. Clarke is missing Holly's barrier of steel that she has built to hide her rather horrific past.  Holly, real name Lula Mae Barnes, was sexually abused as a child (she mentions that anything before the age of 13 doesn't count).  She is married to the much older Doc since the age of 14 and she walked away from her Texas home.  When Doc shows up in New York City to bring her home, Holly jumps into bed with him.  It is a rather disturbing scene.  Murphy Guyer, who played Doc in the production was folksy and sympathetic as was Buddy Ebsen in the film.  There should be an uncomfortable reaction by the audience to this distasteful revelation about Holly's past.  Like all of Holly's disturbing lifestyle being a child bride just seems another part of the mystery to check off rather than an giving us any deeper understanding about the life Holly fled so young.

Ms. Clarke is a very good actress, and she had both a devil-may-care attitude on the surface and genuine vulnerability when the script called for it.  Yet, she just didn't have the art of being the real phony that Holly is described as being  by her former agent, Sid Arbuck.  Given the material, Ms. Clarke was also less likely to attract the fans of Game of Thrones which, coupled with the lukewarm reviews doomed this production to an early demise.

This script and production had potential.  What it would have benefited from were a few regional theater outings where the scripts shortcomings could have been addressed.  Perhaps it or the West End script will get additional outings and the right version of Truman Capote's story will finally get its proper due.

Alan Cumming in MacBeth at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre

"By the pricking of my thumbs, 

Something wicked this way comes."

---2nd Witch, Act IV, Scene 1

Entering the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, audience members are faced with a stark pale green institutional room. This cavernous chamber, designed by Merle Hensel, is reminiscent of an old time horror film version of a hospital wing of a prison, with a curtained observation window and three video screens high above the floor. It is an uneasy setting. Coupled with the eerie score composed by Max Richter, this will not be a comfortable evening of classical theater.  Which is fitting, for William Shakespeare's MacBeth has always been a dark tale of ambition, corruption and power, set in motion by supernatural forces of fate.

A doctor (Jenny Sterlin) and an orderly (Brendan Titley) bring a patient (Alan Cumming) into this foreboding room.  The man is stripped of his disheveled clothing, which is placed in evidence bags. A gash upon his chest is cleansed and samples are taken from his mouth and fingernails. Redressed in white hospital garments they leave him.  As they depart, the man cries out "when shall we three meet again?"

Mr. Cumming takes off from there to perform the entirety of MacBeth with occasional assistance from his two partners. This is no mere stunt recitation of a classical work, but a well thought out telling of a story by a man, who seems to be atoning for a crime he has committed. The script is judiciously cut, leaving out several minor characters. The essence of the tale is intact.  A synopsis is provided in the program for those audience members unfamiliar with the story.

Mr. Cumming physicalizes each character with ease. He is aided by only the barest of props, for example an apple, a baby doll, a bathtub, a sink. Highlights include a sensuous bath for Lord and Lady MacBeth, and a genius use of those video screens during the haunting of MacBeth in the banquet scene.  Mr. Cumming brings humor and pathos to Master Shakespeare's eloquent words.  He will break your heart when MacDuff finds out about the massacre of his wife and children.  And Mr. Cumming's rendition of the famous, "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" speech is that of a man, devastated by the untimely death of his partner in love and life, and a battle-weary warrior readying to face his fate.

It is an astounding performance. MacBeth is being performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York in a strictly limited run through July 14th, 2013. It is being performed without an intermission and has a running time of approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. For tickets and other performance information please visit www.macbethonbroadway.com or www.telecharge.com.

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella at the Broadway Theatre

Are you a Julie Andrews, Lesley Ann Warren or, if younger, a Brandy? For many Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella was a staple of childhood.  Whether it was the original black and white live Broadcast from March 31, 1957 or its television remakes, the perennial staple of the colorful 1960's or the multicultural 1990's,  there is a lot of nostalgic love for this musical, particularly the score.  Ever since the 1957 original, the remakes for television and the stage have added additional songs and rewritten the book so it is not surprising that for the 2013 Broadway revival continues the tradition of adding songs and rewriting the story yet again.

Douglas Carter Beane takes on the latest rewrite of the Cinderella book.  Some of the changes are welcome such as an expanded role for the fairy godmother integrating her into Cinderella's life from the beginning of the story. Other changes are tiresome. There seems to be a trend in contemporary retellings of "Princess" fairytales to do everything to modernize the heroine so that she no longer requires a prince to rescue her from her hum-drum existence. This can be a good thing, if it is executed well.  Yet, Mr. Beane saddles the story with a power to the proletariat subplot that adds a cumbersome layer to the natural story. Inserting contemporary phrases into the dialogue such as "hello, I'm talking" or "will you be my boyfriend" takes away from the universality of the story. When Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella focuses on our heroine and her prince and their fairytale, there are genuine moments of magic on the stage.

In this version, Prince Topher has recently returned from niversity and is preparing to assume his throne. His parents have died and Lord Protector Sebastian has been ruling the kingdom oppressing the peasants.  "Cinder" Ella, lives with her widowed stepmother, Madame and her stepsisters, the gentle Gabrielle and the comically crass Charlotte, waiting on them hand and foot.  Local villager Jean-Michel, who loves Gabrielle, is determined to speak with the Prince about the injustice in the kingdom. To distract the Prince from figuring outSebastian's misrule, a ball is announced during which the Prince will choose a bride. Ella longs to attend the ball and thanks to her kindness to crazy Marie, her Fairy Godmother in disguise, her wish is granted.  After a magical night filled with dancing and love, Ella flees the ball at the stroke of midnight. The Prince is determined to find his love as much as Sebastian and Madame are determined to thwart him.  There are twists and turns until everyone finds their happily ever after.

The design elements are whimsical. Anna Louizos creates an enchanted forest set. William Ivey Long's costumes are a rainbow of color and sparkle.  The magical transformation of Cinderella from rags to ball gown, which happens without smoke or mirrors, will leave you wondering how did they did it in front of your eyes.  David Chase's musical adaptation coupled with the new orchestrations by Danny Troob are lushly performed by a twenty-piece orchestra that does justice to Richard Rodgers score.

The cast is in fine voice. It is wonderful to hear a classic Broadway score sung traditionally by a cast that is not singing the pop-rock vocals so prevalent in today's Broadway shows.  Phumzile Sojola as Lord Pinkleton uses his clear operatic tones to make "The Prince Is Giving a Ball" the rousing production number it should be.  Ann Harada accompanied by the ladies of the court turns "Stepsister's Lament" into a comedic gem.  Greg Hildreth sings "Now Is the Time" with revolutionary fervor.
Harriet Harris as Madame and Peter Bartlett as Sebastian are appropriately hissable villains. Victoria Clark soars physically and vocally through the classic "Impossible."

Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana are well matched as Cinderella and her Prince.  With beautiful voices and unmatched chemistry they are probably the best couple on Broadway.   Yes, its true that there really isn't anything with an old-fashioned love story currently on the New York stage, but let that not distract from the fact that you could not ask for a better representation of love and honest emotion than Ms. Osnes and Mr. Fontana.

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella is far from a perfect show. The errors in changes to the book nearly derail what is otherwise a fine production.  Go to see Laura Osnes, Santino Fontana and the rest of this excellent cast do justice to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's beloved score.  Perhaps someday the musical will get a book that will do equal justice to the story.

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella is being performed on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre. For tickets and other performance information please visit www.cinderellaonbroadway.com or www.telecharge.com.

Hello, Dolly! at Ford's Theatre

Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi works her matchmaking magic to utterly delightful results at Washington D.C.'s Ford's Theatre.  A joint production with Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre, this production which uses only sixteen cast members brings forth the energy of the more traditional sized productions of this show.  Director Eric Schaeffer brings larger-than-life, yet very human performances out of his cast.  While some of the staging may not truly show the opulence of 1890's New York City, the faults of this production are few and far between.

The musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker will always be indelibly stamped with the memories of original director and choreographer Gower Champion's spectacular stagecraft and the performance of Carol Channing as Dolly, one of the most iconic theatrical performances of all time. The Ford's Theatre revival finds ways to scale the production to fit the intimate Ford's Theatre stage yet retain the heart of the show that many an audience member will remember throughout its decades-long history of  on professional stages, amateur stages and film.

In 1890's Yonkers, New York, Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi makes a living matchmaking for the well-to-do. She has been hired to find a suitable bride for half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder. While plotting to steer Mr. Vandergelder to the perfect mate, Mrs. Levi aids several other couples, including Mr. Vandergelder's love-struck niece, Ermengarde and her beloved Ambrose Kemper. Mr. Vandergelder's clerks, the long-suffering Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker decide to defy orders and follow Mr. Vandergelder to New York City where they hope to find adventure and kiss a girl. Through twists and turns everyone ends up at the elegant Harmonia Gardens restaurant and eventually to a happily-ever-after for all.

Choreographer Karma Camp works miracles with her dancing ensemble of six, yes, only six dancers. Those six, four men and two women, manage to fill every inch of the stage with rousing energetic support to the lively, well-cast principal players. The highlight of the show is the Waiters' Galop, that frenzied number set at the elegant Harmonia Gardens that serves as a warm-up to the title song. If there is any disappointment in this production it comes in the set design for the Harmonia Gardens, that just does not convey any sense of magical opulence.  The title tune also suffers from a lack of true grandeur, the one time that one wishes it were a cast of thirty or more to dazzle the senses.

There are memorable performances from everyone down to Stephen F. Schmidt as the strict maitre-d Rudolph and Maria Egler's slightly vulgar Ernestina. Carolyn Cole makes whining an artform as Ermengarde and Ben Lurye is charming as Ambrose Kemper. Lauren Williams is cute with proper wide-eyed wonderment as Minnie Fay, well partnered by the equally young and slightly naive Zack Colonna as Barnaby Tucker. Gregory Maheu is the older Cornelis Hackl bursting with his first taste of freedom from his years toiling as a clerk. Tracy Lynn Olivera is worldly and wise as the independent widow, Irene Molloy.  Edward Gero is appropriately gruff as a fierce teddy bear as Dolly's prize match, Horace Vandergelder.

Nancy Opel's Dolly Gallagher Levi is reminiscent of the Dolly from the original play, The Matchmaker. She is charming, scheming and has the audience eating out of her hand from her first entrance. Whether she is seeking advice from her beloved lost husband, Ephraim or manipulating her darling Horace Vandergelder into doing exactly as she wishes Ms. Opel is constantly in control. She is poignant singing When The Parade Passes By and the diva of center stage in the title tune. Ms. Opel is plain and simple a marvelous Dolly.

Hello, Dolly! a joint production between Ford's Theatre and Signature Theatre is being performed at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC through May 18, 2013. For tickets and other performance information, please visit www.fords.org.

Mary T. & Lizzy K. at Arena Stage

The relationship between Mary Todd Lincoln, "Mrs. President," first lady of the United States and Elizabeth Keckley, her exclusive seamstress and confidente, is an intriguing one, ripe for a theatrical portrayal that is deeper than the slight one shown in the recent film Lincoln.  Tazewell Thompson, well known playwright and director to Washington, D.C. audiences, makes a valiant attempt to bring this relationship to life.  The attempt provides a bold representation of the complex Mrs. Lincoln.  It is less successful at illuminating what is, for the audience, the lesser known and far more compelling Mrs. Keckley.  Mary T. & Lizzy K. is a step in the right direction, but needs more work to make the women as equal on stage as they appear in the title of the show.

This is not a rote biographical sketch. As Mr. Tazewell remarks in the program he was seeking to bring the characters to life "through (his) imagination." This is admirable for it would be tedious to see yet another bio-drama that is simply a highlight parade of the subject's life. Mr. Tazewell sets his scene in a mishmash room, designed by Donald Eastman, one side piled with furniture and trunks, the other stark and uninviting. On these grounds we see the asylum Mrs. Lincoln was committed to by her eldest and only surviving son, Robert Lincoln as well as what appears to be trashed chaos caused by the unexpected eviction of Mrs. Lincoln from the White House following her husband's assassination.

The play, in its one hour and forty minutes, takes us from an audience with the allegedly insane Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Lincoln confronting Mrs. Keckley for daring to publish her memoirs. It segues to the height of their professional and personal relationship near the end of Mr. Lincoln's presidency. Using only four characters, it is an intimate portrait, yet ultimately unsatisfying for leaving the audience craving more information about the elusive Mrs. Keckley.

Naomi Jacobson brings hurricanes of emotion as the forceful Mary Todd Lincoln. She dominates the proceedings as Mrs. Lincoln probably dominated anyone who was graced with an audience with the emotional firebrand that Mrs. Lincoln appears to have been in real life. She is charming, irrational, devoted, dismissive and above all, proud and aristocratic. One gets the impression that one would not dare contradict Mrs. President, or insist upon the payment of her bills.  Ms. Jacobson is a slight woman, but within that exterior lives a tiger of a personality that overwhelms the rest of the performances. It is not the fault of the actress, but the nature of the play that Mrs. Lincoln is the more outsized personality and therefore takes an outsized portion of the play.

Sameerah Lugmaan-Harris's Mrs. Keckley is much more self-contained. She conveys a quiet dignity in most of her interactions with her famous client. For two-thirds of the play we get so little insight into this woman that she remains as much of a cypher as she does in her token appearance in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. This is a shame for Elizabeth Keckley's life is just as fascinating as that as Mrs. Lincoln. It is not until the last third of the play that her emotional barriers come down and the audience learns of her heartbreaking past and difficult present. She should be a bolder presence throughout the play. This a woman, who out of financial desperation, risked her reputation by breaking the bounds of nineteenth century propriety by publishing Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, a book about not just her life, but her relationship with the first family of the land. This is a woman who bought her own freedom and that of her son, only to see her son die in action as a Union soldier. While these facts are present in the play, they need to be fleshed out more to make the character of Elizabeth Keckley more of an equal to her name in the title of this work.

The fictional dressmaker's assistant, Ivy, portrayed by Joy Jones, is a riveting figure both in appearance and speech. Part of the problem of the play is that this fictional character takes too much of a leading role in the first half of the play. Thomas Adrian Simpson's Abraham Lincoln, is charming and a very human husband, clearly devoted to his wife and devastated by her heightened emotional state. The third supporting character is the costumes, designed by Merrily Murray-Walsh. We as audience receive quite a lesson in Civil War era women's fashion, from the style of hoop skirt to the intricate nature of fitting a handmade gown. That the actresses portraying Mrs. K and Ivy have to do a complete dress fitting on stage is a testament to the challenges of bringing authenticity to the proceedings.

Tazewell Thompson is to be commended for making the relationship of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley the focus of his play. They have been long overdue for examination in any kind of depth. One wishes that Lizzy K did not remain a shadow in the bright supernova that is Mary T. As this is a world premiere one hopes that this will not be the end for this piece, but a well-intentioned beginning.

Mary T. & Lizzy K. is being performed in the Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage's Mead Center for American Theater and has been extended through May 5, 2013. For tickets and other performance information please visit www.arenastage.org.

A am a Plain Dealing VIllain: Portraying Thomas Cromwell at the Maryland Renaissance Festival

By Diane Holcomb Wilshere

Presented at the Popular Cultural Association/

American Cultural Association National Conference

Washington, D.C. March 27, 2013

  

Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the following:

Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans – department chair, friend, mentor

The interview subjects whether formally responding to questions or discussing memories of the festival in years pass with the author at cocktail parties:

Thomas Plott, Thomas Cromwell 1993-1994

Steven Kirkpatrick, Thomas Cromwell 2003-2005, 2007

Carolyn Spedden, Artistic Director, Maryland Renaissance Festival

Mike Field, Playwright

Mary Ann Jung, Royal Court Director, Maryland Renaissance Festival

And this paper is dedicated to Kevin Wilshere, for his love, support and putting up with the author’s eccentricities

  

“…it must not be denied but I am a plaine dealing vilaine,”

---Don John, Much Adoe About Nothing by William Shakespeare[1]

William Shakespeare’s villains are easy to identify. They tell us they are villains. There is no subtext, no deep dark childhood secret that makes us realize that they aren’t really bad people. They are who they are and this makes watching them that much more enjoyable for the audience. When it comes to history, particularly the popular culture obsession with all things Tudor England, there is a similar desire to create easily identifiable heroes and villains.

What are the challenges for an actor when they are portraying a person from history who is usually identified by popular culture as the villain? One could easily write a novel-length paper on the many persons who were at the courts of the Tudor monarchs who, in historical fiction, plays and films are seen as the villains. The Maryland Renaissance Festival employs professional actors to portray the King and his court.  The royal court storyline changes from year to year.  The festival has portrayed all six of King Henry VIII’s queens twice and has now returned back in time to portray Queen Katherine of Aragon for a third time.

In the course of the two previous queenly cycles two actors have portrayed a character widely seen in both fictional and non-fictional mediums as a villain. Thomas Cromwell is popularly seen as the orchestrator of the falls of Sir Thomas More and Queen Anne Boleyn.  As the Vice-Regent for the King In Spirituals Cromwell destroyed the monasteries filling the King’s treasury with the spoils and using the land to enrich himself and other members of the court.  Thomas Cromwell made a fatal mistake in promoting the King’s marriage to his fourth wife, Queen Anna of Cleves.  Two months after being raised to the title of Earl of Essex he was arrested and attainted for treason and heresy. His subsequent execution was grisly as the headsman botched the job.  A fitting end to a notorious villain.

“With rewards and penalties –so much wickedness purchases so much worldly prospering---“

---Thomas Cromwell, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt[2]

We all love a good story. When it comes to history we are much more enamored of historical narratives with clear heroes and villains rather than a simple rote list of names, dates and events.  It has been ever so from the first chroniclers of Tudor History.  Examining Thomas Cromwell he has been brushed with the label of villain since the earliest chroniclers.  Theatrically he is portrayed as a driving calculating minister who rose in power from his humble peasant beginnings to the most powerful man in the kingdom, the indispensible right hand man to the king.[3][4] [5]

When those historians, whether John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments positively extolling the Protestant virtues of Thomas Cromwell’s church reforms[6] or Nicholas Sander demonizing Cromwell for persecuting the Carthusian monks for refusing to swear an oath recognizing King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England,[7] each historian’s viewpoint is colored depending on the moral tale they wished to relate to their readers.  This has translated to the fictional portrayals of Thomas Cromwell from the beginning. Even William Shakespeare has weighed in on Thomas Cromwell, portraying him as the loyal servant of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, devastated by Wolsey’s downfall.[8]

What has changed in the 20^th and 21^st centuries is the rise in popularity of historical fiction. The majority of the portrayals of Thomas Cromwell keep him in his traditional role as the villain of Henry VIII’s court. There have been numerous dramatic portrayals on stage, screen and television that have, for the most part continued the popular stereotypes of Henry VIII’s prominent minister.

Discovering the real person behind the popular cultural perception has become much easier in the past decade with the availability of primary source materials on the Internet.  It is easier to examine the letters and papers of King Henry VIII’s court and read the actual accounts of the reign.  Numerous out of print books, such as accounts originally published in the Victorian era are available to download and peruse.   Yet, the stereotypes persist.  After all, the history seems juicier when one can write dramatic tales, for example, Queen Anne Boleyn’s allegedly deformed miscarried son[9], which most historians believe was not the case.[10] [11]

This is partly due to the continued interest in Tudor England in popular culture starting in 1998 with the release of the Academy Award-winning film Elizabeth. From Philippa Gregory’s novels The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, to the many miniseries on Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I which led up to the very popular Showtime series The Tudors, the 16^th century remains a popular subject to dramatize. This is also apparent at those renaissance festivals that portray the royal court through storylines based on historical events.

“As matters stand you are but half a king…What the King of England wants he should have, without hindrance from abroad.”

---Thomas Cromwell, Anne of The Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson

The Maryland Renaissance Festival is known for providing entertaining dramatized plays about the prominent events in the reign of King Henry VIII.  As mentioned previously, the Maryland Renaissance Festival has portrayed the entire cycle of King Henry VIII and all six of his queens twice and has started with Queen Katherine of Aragon for a third time.[12]  The special nature of acting at a renaissance festival also leads to what Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans terms historical elaboration.[13]

Dr. Korol-Evans defines historical elaboration as  “first-person interpretation with an additional theatrical flair.”[14] Renaissance festival actors are not just performing their characters as part of a play on a stage. Many members of the audience gain a chance to interact with the actors through improvisation, thus gaining a more personal relationship than they might develop by simply seeing the character on a stage. Through such interactions, the audience gets an idea of whom that person might have been through the interpretation of the actor portraying the part. When Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as the villain it becomes a chance for an actor to either fully embrace that villainous role or subtlety shade the audience’s perception by giving them a glimpse into the character’s motivations for his actions.

“I tread as my duty directs me, your majesty. I tread for your interests.”

Thomas Cromwell, The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn

by Nick McCarty[15]

It is a breath of fresh air that Thomas Cromwell’s recent biographer, Robert Hutchinson does not waste pages trying to expand upon what little is known about Thomas Cromwell’s early life.  We don’t know exactly when Thomas Cromwell was born, but it is presumed to be around 1485.  His father, Walter Cromwell was a violent man who was in constant legal troubles and held many different jobs including that of blacksmith.   At some point young Thomas ended up going to the continent where he traveled to the Low Countries and Italy and may have fought as a member of the French army on the losing side in a war with the Spanish.[16] He ended up in Antwerp and Italy where he became a clerk to several bankers and merchants and became fluent in several languages.[17] Returning to England by 1516 he had married and was considered influential enough to be sent by John Robinson, an aldermen of Boston in Lincolnshire to travel to Rome to seek two indulgences from Pope Leo X.[18]

It is not known when he became acquainted with Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, but he entered the Cardinal’s service at some point in the mid-1520’s.  Cromwell also served in the House of Commons in Parliament.[19]  Cromwell survived the fall of Wolsey from favor and joined the King’s household in 1530.   He would become known to history for his legal expertise in the King’s Great Matter (or the annulment of the marriage of  King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon) and the rise of Anne Boleyn to queen.  His role as Vice-Regent of the King in Spirituals led to his overseeing the dissolution of the monasteries and brought him into conflict both with the conservative, more traditional Roman Catholic members of the aristocracy and with the reforming faction represented by Queen Anne and her brother, George, Viscount Rochford.  It is those conflicts that have made Thomas Cromwell a natural villain in the fictional versions of the court of King Henry VIII.  Thomas Cromwell has featured as a villain in such works as Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, Maxwell Anderson’s Anne of the Thousand Days, the 1970 BBC Miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the 2007-2010 Showtime Series The Tudors. 

The storylines written for the two Thomas Cromwells portrayed at the Maryland Renaissance Festival have been based on actual incidents of the time period. They have been changed for dramatic effect sometimes changing the setting to the Festival’s fictional village of Revel Grove or giving Cromwell a more active role in some events.  In the plays and scenarios written for the character Thomas Cromwell remains a person of power and influence and most certainly, the villain.

“I am not the King’s right hand, I am his fist.”

---Thomas Cromwell, Cromwell’s Ghost by Mike Field[20]

Thomas Plott portrayed Thomas Cromwell at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for two seasons, 1993 and 1994.  In 1993 the year portrayed was 1537 and King Henry VIII was looking for property to build Nonsuch Palace. As Royal Court Director Mary Ann Jung commented she had discovered that historically the village of  Cuddington in Epsom, Surrey had been sold to the crown and destroyed to make way for the palace and two royal parks. [21]In the Festival’s version of the story Thomas Cromwell decided that Revel Grove was the perfect location and tried to get the Mayor of Revel Grove to sign the property over to the crown.[22]  In the course of the festival performance day, the Mayor received a blow on the head, which made him think that he was King Alfred the Great.  At the end of the day, the Mayor regained his memory just as he was about to sign over the deed to the village.  Cromwell ordered his subordinate, the village deputy Cyril to take care of the Mayor leading to the Mayor’s murder. 

In 1994, this storyline was revisited in the haunting tale written by playwright Mike Field, Cromwell’s Ghost.   In the story Cromwell is lured to the home of a local embroider who wants to punish Cromwell for the death of the Mayor and the subsequent madness of the Mayor’s sister.  The actual ghost of the Mayor appears to Cromwell, literally making him confront the demons of his past. 

The main royal court storyline that season concerned the ill-fated marriage of King Henry VIII and Queen Anna of Cleves.  After the King’s wedding was held on the joust field, Cromwell was forced to sit on a bench on the field to watch the final joust of the day instead of in the royal reviewing stand.  Once the joust concluded Cromwell was arrested.  He charged towards the royal box, was whipped and escorted away to prison while the village choir sang Mozart’s Dies Ire. 

According to playwright Mike Field, Cromwell’s power was emphasized by his dramatic arrival with the royal court first thing in the morning.  Cromwell was carried by four men in a covered litter as the rest of the royal court walked in procession through the gates of the village.[23]  His subsequent fall from grace was visually stark as he sat on a simple wooden bench while the joust took place.  Reflecting on his time as Thomas Cromwell  Mr. Plott did not see Cromwell as a villain but as a necessary evil.  Yet he was delighted by his audience interactions, describing how he was treated and how he treated the audience by saying “with fear, loathing and delight…All that I hoped for.”[24] Mr. Plott  saw the arc of the storyline he portrayed as a “classic villain storyline.  He was a man who could not escape his fate, though he thought he could.”[25]

Mr. Plott has a unique perspective, as he is a Character Interpreter at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon in Virginia.  When asked to comment on the differences between being a Character Interpreter at an historic location such as Mt. Vernon and performing an historic character at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, Mt. Plott replied, “ The similarities are the fact that Cromwell is a historical person and certain facts are known about him.  As a Character Interpreter you try to use the knowledge of these facts to create a realistic portrayal of the person. In the case of Cromwell for the festival, I also had to shape my performance using the scripts as another set of ‘facts’ to specifically portray him as a villain.”[26]

“The last three weeks I was alive, I couldn’t speak to Henry, couldn’t send a message. Cromwell cut me off. While he told his lies.”

----Anne Boleyn, Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton[27]

Thomas Cromwell returned to the cast of the Maryland Renaissance Festival in 2003, this time in the guise of actor Steven Kirkpatrick.  He would portray Cromwell until the 2007 season, with the exception of the 2006 season.  Mr. Kirkpatrick recalled that the storylines over the course of the four seasons “increasingly emphasized the rise of Cromwell in power and influence.[28]  Mr. Kirkpatrick began his tenure as Cromwell as the festival portrayed the year 1534 and the storylines showed that King Henry VIII could depend upon Cromwell to do what the king wanted.  The scripts gave Mr. Kirkpatrick clues that shaped his Cromwell as shrewd, calm and wry.  Fellow members of the cast commented to Mr. Kirkpatrick that while they remembered Thomas Plott’s Cromwell as more of a Darth Vader-like terrorizing villain, Mr. Kirkpatrick was more “slimy”, “like a snake,” or “like Severus Snape”[29]  from Harry Potter.

In 2004, the festival portrayed the Year of Three Queens.[30] In the course of the festival performing day Queen Katherine of Aragon died, Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed and Mistress Jane Seymour was betrothed to the king.  In history these events happened over the first five months of the year 1536.  Dramatically it was a compelling series of plays and street scenarios that brought these historic events to life.[31] Thomas Cromwell was a prominent figure in each of the queen’s stories, announcing that Queen Katherine of Aragon was on her deathbed, interrogating Queen Anne’s ladies in Queen Anne’s Arrest and being honored with the noble title Baron of Oakham as part of Jane’s Betrothal.   Mr. Kirkpatrick related that as Cromwell’s power grew he was shown at one point sitting in the King’s throne issuing orders.  In another example, Queen Anne hurled curses and accusations at him as he followed her in procession as she exited the festival on her way to imprisonment in the Tower of London.[32]

It was the following season that gave Mr. Kirkpatrick the opportunity to show Thomas Cromwell in his villainous glory.  The 2005 season focused on The Lost Princess.[33]  The year portrayed was 1537, although the main storyline, the return of the Lady Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon to court, historically took place in the year 1536.  Cromwell was tasked with obtaining the written capitulation of the Lady Mary that accepted that her father was now head of the Church of England and that her mother’s marriage was unlawful and incestuous making herself illegitimate. [34]  Mr. Kirkpatrick recalled, “The scripts had Cromwell accompanied by Sir Richard Southwell, who indeed served as his henchman, grim-faced and ready to urge violence.”[35]

Mr. Kirkpatrick’s own research on Cromwell revealed that the “speculation about Cromwell’s early years and possible mercenary work in Italy, would have accounted for the violence that was revealed in the Lady Mary interrogation.”[36] He ultimately did not see Thomas Cromwell as an “outright villain,” but “as some one for whom gaining power and influence over people was enough of a kick that he couldn’t help himself.”[37]

I have served my Lord with all my mind and spirit.  I am no traitor!

Thomas Cromwell, Cromwell’s Dream by Carolyn Spedden[38]

As with Thomas Plott, Steven Kirkpatrick also portrayed the fall of Thomas Cromwell from power.  His experience was unique, as his character was not actually arrested for treason.  Instead the stage play Cromwell’s Dream written by Carolyn Spedden dramatized the events leading up to and including the arrest.  Thomas Cromwell, working tirelessly at his desk fell asleep.  In his dream state his enemies at court confronted him for his treasonous behavior.  Cromwell awoke from his nightmare, uneasy with the specter of the axe haunting his soul. 

When asked to reflect on his four seasons as Thomas Cromwell, Mr. Kirkpatrick mentioned that the most vivid patron interactions were based on audience members mistaking Thomas Cromwell for Oliver Cromwell.  Oliver Cromwell, a descendant of Thomas Cromwell’s sister, is reviled for his treatment of the Irish.  “Those were the only times I received outright reactions or negative comments…However, there were always a few savvy patrons who know the history and who might sidle up to me—especially after a court show—and say ‘You’ll get yours one day, you know.’”[39]

“Those who are made can be unmade.”

Anne Boleyn, Bring Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel[40]

As in all stories of good versus evil, the bad guy loses in the end.  The real Thomas Cromwell was arrested while attending a Privy Council meeting on June 10, 1540. An Act of Attainder of treason and heresy passed by Parliament convicted him, a process he himself had promoted as a way to bypass the need for a trial.  Kept alive long enough to assist from his cell in the Tower of London with the annulment of the King’s marriage to Queen Anna of Cleves he was executed by beheading on July 28, 1540, the same day that the King married his fifth queen, Katharine Howard.[41] Thomas Cromwell’s newest biographer, Diarmaid MacCulloch writes in the March 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine that Cromwell’s fall and death were caused by four factors.  The first factor is the one that is most famous and the primary reason used in fictional portrayals, the arrangement of the King’s marriage to Anna of Cleves.  Secondly, and this is a new revelation, Cromwell angered Thomas Howard, 3^rd Duke of Norfolk by ignoring the Duke’s wishes for Thetford Priory, traditional burial place of the Howard family and coincidentally the burial place for he King’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset.  Norfolk wished to have the priory converted to a college of priests.  Cromwell closed the priory in February 1540 and Norfolk was forced to relocate his family’s tombs 35 miles away to Framlingham.  Third, in March 1540, John Bourchier, 15^th Earl of Essex died and the King granted his ancient title to Cromwell.  Lastly, John de Vere, 15^th Earl of Oxford died, the hereditary Great Chamberlain of England one of the oldest royal offices.   The King granted it to Cromwell.[42] The blacksmith’s son from Putney had angered the aristocracy one too many times and they were able to persuade the King to put an end to Cromwell.

Thomas Cromwell is a complex character that makes for a fascinating villain from Tudor England.   He can be the consummate villain of such plays as Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons or Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn.  Alternatively he is a more complicated man, whether in the novels of Hillary Mantel or the television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII and  The Tudors. 

There is continued interest in Thomas Cromwell thanks to new scholarship in the guise of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s soon to be released biography and Hilary Mantel’s planned novel relating the end of his life.  As the Maryland Renaissance Festival cycles its way through the 1520’s and 30’s for the third time you can be assured that Thomas Cromwell will reappear in the tales told of King Henry VIII’s court.  It will be fascinating to see whether he will once again be the Darth Vader-like terror embodied by Thomas Plott or the smooth, coy snake of Steven Kirkpatrick.  One can look forward to the return of Thomas Cromwell to the cast of the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  Perhaps he will emerge in a third manner as a new actor puts his own memorable interpretation on the streets of Revel Grove.

“Men so noble, however faulty, yet should find respect for what they have been.”

---Cromwell, Henry VIII by William Shakespeare[43]

---

[1] William Shakespeare, Much Adoe About Nothing, Applause First Folio Edition, (New York: Applause Theatre Books, 2001) 13

[2] Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons, (New York: Vintage Books: 1960), 41

[3] Bolt 41

[4] The Tudors.  Directors various. (Showtime, TM Productions Limited/PA Tudors Inc. An Ireland-Canada Co-Production), 2007-2009

[5] The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

[6] John Foxe. The Unabridged Actes and Monuments Online or TAMO. (Sheffield: HRI Online Publications) 1563 Edition, Book 3  578-589

[7] Nicholas Sander, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism,  Google Play Digital Edition (London: Burns and Oates, 1877) 253

[8] Shakespeare, William. Henry VIII or All Is True, Folger Shakespeare Edition (New York: Washington Square Press, 2007) 153-159

[9] Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl, (New York: Touchstone, 2001) 589

[10] Eric Ives. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004) 296-298

[11] Claire Ridgway. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown, Kindle Edition (MadeGlobal Publishing: April 2012) 17-19.

[12] http://rennfest.com/entertainment/this-year-s-story-line 2012

[13] Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans, Renaissance Festivals: Merrying The Past And Present, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2009) 123

[14] Korol-Evans 123

[15] Nick McCarty, The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn, BBC 1970, DVD 2000

[16] Hutchinson, Robert. Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII’s Most Notorious Minister, (London: Phoenix, 2008)  7-9

[17] Hutchinson 10

[18] Hutchinson 10

[19] Hutchinson 13-17

[20] Field, Mike, Cromwell’s Ghost (Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival 1994

[21] Field notes, interview with Mary Ann Jung, March 2013

[22] Field notes, interview with Thomas Plott, March 2013

[23] Field, March 2013

[24] Plott, March 2013

[25] Plott, March 2013

[26] Plott, March 2013

[27] Brenton, Howard, Anne Boleyn,  Kindle Edition (London: Nick Hern Books, 2012) 113

[28] Field notes, interview with Steven Kirkpatrick, March 2013

[29] Kirkpatrick, March 2013

[30] http://articles.mcall.com/2004-08-22/features/3555229_1_dorflinger-glass-maryland-renaissance-festival-opening-weekend

[31] Korol-Evans, 128-144

[32] Field notes. Interview with Steven Kirkpatrick.

[33] http://friendsofmdrf.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=2005

[34] Porter, Linda. The First Queen of England, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007) 118-125

[35] Kirkpatrick March 2013

[36] Kirkpatrick, March 2013

[37] Kirkpatrick, March 2013

[38] Spedden Carolyn, Cromwell’s Dream, (Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival, 2007)

[39] Kirkpatrick, March 2013

[40] Mantel, Hillary,  Bring Up the Bodies, Kindle Edition, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC., 2012) 110

[41] Hutchinson, 238-263

[42] MacCulloch, Diarmaid. “Thomas Cromwell: a Thug in a Doublet?”, BBC History Magazine, Ipad Edition (Bristol: Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd., March 2013) 29-33

[43] Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 215

Bibliography

A Man For All Seasons. (1966) Director Fred Zimmerman.  Columbia Pictures.

Anderson, Maxwell. Anne of the Thousand Days. New York: Dramatists Play Service, Inc. 1948,1950, 1977.

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Director Charles Jarrott. Universal Pictures.

Bolt, Robert. A Man For All Seasons. New York: Vintage Books. 1960, 1962.

Brenton, Howard. Anne Boleyn.  London: Nick Hern Books. Kindle Edition. 2012.

Field, Mike. Cromwell’s Ghost. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival. 1994.

Gregory, Philippa. The Other Boleyn Girl. New York: Touchstone. 2001.

Hutchinson, Robert. Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII’s Most Notorious Minister. London: Phoenix. 2008.

Ives, Eric W. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. 2004.

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Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. 2009

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. “Thomas Cromwell: a thug in a doublet?” BBC History Magazine. Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd. Ipad Edition. March 2013.

Porter, Linda. The First Queen of England. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2007.

Ridgway, Claire. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown.  MadeGlobal Publishing: Kindle Edition. April 2012.

Sander, Nicholas. Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism. Google Play Digital Edition. London: Burns and Oates. 1877.

Shakespeare, William. Henry VIII or All Is True. Folger Shakespeare Library Edition. New York: Washington Square Press.  2007

Shakespeare, William. Much Adoe About Nothing. Applause First Folio Editions. New York: Applause Theatre Books. 2001.

Spedden, Carolyn. Cromwell’s Dream. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival. 2007

The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn.  (1970) Director Naomi Capon BBC DVD edition 2000.

The Tudors. (2007-2010). Various Directors. Showtime, TM Productions Limited/PA Tudors Inc./An Ireland-Canada Coproduction.

articles.mcall.com/2004-08-22/features/355529_1_dorflinger-glass-maryland-renaissance-festival-opening-weekend

friendsofmdrf.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=2005

Foxe, John. The Unabridged Actes and Monuments Online or TAMO. HRI Online Publications. Sheffield. www.johnfoxe.org.

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www.theanneboleynfiles.com