Our dramatisation of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies played in two parts in Stratford-upon-Avon, London and New York.
The two three-hour productions covered the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII, who was desperate for a male heir.
Hilary Mantel was the first author to win two Man Booker Prizes with consecutive novels. They were adapted for the stage in two parts by Mike Poulton and directed by Jeremy Herrin.
After playing in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon the productions moved to London's Aldwych Theatre for a limited run in 2014 and then to Broadway in 2015.
Wolf Hall
England in 1527. Henry VIII has been King for almost 20 years and is desperate for a male heir. Intent on divorce he demands that Cardinal Wolsey persuade the Pope to grant him an annulment. With every month that passes without progress the King's anger grows. Into this volatile court enters the commoner Thomas Cromwell.
A one-time mercenary, master-politician, lawyer and doting father, he sets out to grant the King his desire whilst methodically and ruthlessly pursuing his own reforming agenda.
Bring Up the Bodies
Anne Boleyn is now Queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell. But Henry remains without a male heir, and the conflict with the Catholic Church has left England dangerously isolated as France and the Holy Roman Empire ominously manoeuvre for position.
When the King begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour, Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly dangerous court as he charms, bullies and manipulates nobility, commoners and foreign powers alike to satisfy Henry, keep the nation safe, and advance his own ambitions.
