Anne Boleyn (play)

Anne Boleyn
Written by	Howard Brenton
Characters	Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, James I, George Villiers
Date premiered	24 July 2010
Place premiered	Shakespeare's Globe
Original language	English
Subject	English Reformation
Genre	Drama
Setting	England, 1519–1536 and 1603–1604
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Anne Boleyn is a play on the life of Anne Boleyn by the English author Howard Brenton, which premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Anne Boleyn is portrayed as a significant force in the political and religious in-fighting at court and a furtherer of the cause of Protestantism in her enthusiasm for the Tyndale Bible.

The play was commissioned by Shakespeare's Globe, and premiered at The Globe from 24 July to 21 August 2010 in a production directed by John Dove and with the title role played by Miranda Raison (also playing Boleyn in Shakespeare's Henry VIII in the same season). It was presented alongside the Globe's first season of Shakespeare's history plays, made up of Henry VIII, Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2. The same production was revived in 2011 as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations of the King James Version, with most of the same cast.

The play was awarded Best New Play at the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Awards 2011.

In Spring 2012 the Globe's production was revived for a tour of England and Scotland, jointly produced by Shakespeare's Globe and English Touring Theatre and featuring many of the original cast although with Jo Herbert in the title role.

The ghost of Anne Boleyn arrives, carrying a blood-stained bag containing her severed head and a copy of Tyndale's Bible, and addresses the audience. The action moves to 1603, where James I arrives in London for his English coronation and finds a chest containing Anne Boleyn's coronation dress. Searching the chest's secret compartments, he finds Anne's copies of the Tyndale Bible and The Obedience of a Christian Man. He and his lover George Villiers go to search the palace for Anne's ghost. The action shifts to Anne Boleyn at the English court, where Henry VIII meets her, falls in love with her and acquiesces to her demands to postpone their first sex until she can be his wife. Henry begins the divorce proceedings against Catherine of Aragon, with both Cardinal Wolsey and Wolsey's advisor manoeuvring for position.

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