Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Transferring a winning novel to stage is difficult. Doing it with two – and succeeding – is a special feat
Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell and Lydia Leonard as Ann Boleyn. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Turning a novel into a play is always tricky: even more so in the case of Hilary Mantel's two prize-winning books which view the dark intricacies of the Tudor court through Thomas Cromwell's fierce, prismatic intelligence. But, even if Mantel's poetic eye for detail gets somewhat lost, Mike Poulton has done an outstanding job in turning the books into two epic three-hour plays that, in Jeremy Herrin's RSC production, make for a gripping piece of narrative theatre.
Wolf Hall is ostensibly the more difficult of the two to dramatise in that it covers a larger time span: roughly the eight years from 1527 to 1535 that see the rise of Cromwell – a Putney blacksmith's son – to high office, as well as the downfall of his patron Cardinal Wolsey through his failure to secure an annulment of Henry VIII's first marriage. But these eight tumultuous years also witness the accession of Anne Boleyn to the throne, her failure to produce a male heir and the execution of Thomas More for his refusal to take the oath legitimising Anne's position.
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Wolf Hall is ostensibly the more difficult of the two to dramatise in that it covers a larger time span: roughly the eight years from 1527 to 1535 that see the rise of Cromwell – a Putney blacksmith's son – to high office, as well as the downfall of his patron Cardinal Wolsey through his failure to secure an annulment of Henry VIII's first marriage. But these eight tumultuous years also witness the accession of Anne Boleyn to the throne, her failure to produce a male heir and the execution of Thomas More for his refusal to take the oath legitimising Anne's position.
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