 - actor jim hopkins - photo rich sofranko.widea.jpg "onstage 1-18 - henry viii (cincy shakes) - actor jim hopkins - photo rich sofranko - Caption: Jim Hopkins as Henry VIII - Credit: Photo: Rich Sofranko")
Jim Hopkins as Henry VIII - Photo: Rich Sofranko
Shakespeare wrote Henry VIII in 1612 or 1613, probably in collaboration with John Fletcher, another playwright. The events of the history play date from an era not long before Shakespeare’s birth, and the work — known originally and hyperbolically as All Is True — chronicled events that were still vivid in England’s cultural memory. The scandalous marriage of Henry to Anne Boleyn produced Elizabeth I, the queen who ruled the nation for nearly a half-century. She had died a decade before All Is True was produced, but Elizabeth was an honored ruler and her legacy was beloved by the population. But the strife surrounding Henry’s divorce of his first wife, Queen Katherine, shattered relations with the Roman Catholic Church and led to the establishment of the Church of England with Henry as its supreme leader.
The veneration of nobility and the intrigue around religion and politics, as well as an appetite for pomp and circumstance, certainly made this script one that the citizens of London loved. The play, rife with plots, pageantry and ceremonies, had a long history of extravagant production well into the 19th century. But for the past 150 years it’s rarely been staged. In fact, Brian Isaac Phillips, who directed the production currently onstage at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, running for three weeks, speculates that this might be the work’s premiere in Cincinnati. What took it so long?
Henry VIII continues at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company through Feb. 5. Read Rick Pender's full review here.
