Martin Shaw reprises his acclaimed role of a decade ago in A Man for All Seasons - review

A Man for All Seasons at the Oxford Playhouse

18 – 22 February

By Jon Lewis

When it’s dangerous to have a conscience

Robert Bolt’s 1960 historical drama, A Man for All Seasons, is named after a phrase in the Dutch philosopher Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly about his English friend Sir Thomas More, with whom he stayed while in England.

The play, reaching a global audience when filmed in 1966, explores whether it was folly or heroism when More, the former Lord Chancellor, refuses to sign a charter supporting Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Trusting that his silence on the political earthquake is a matter for his own conscience to protect him from lying to God – he believed in hell and heaven – More is ultimately condemned to death at a show trial organised by his nemesis, Sir Thomas Cromwell.

A packed Oxford Playhouse was attracted by the starry casting of Martin Shaw as More, a part he first played to acclaim over a decade ago. Jonathan Church’s excellent Theatre Royal Bath production is played out on Simon Higlett’s impressive set with high-ceilinged book-filled rooms suggesting academic prowess.

This is a play about dialectics. More knows that to defy the king means death, but as a lawyer, he runs intellectual rings around his persecutors. However, as fans of Wolf Hall know, the King’s low-born fixer Cromwell (Edward Bennett) is a cunning predator and as tenacious as a bulldog. It’s fascinating seeing how these two big beasts of Henry’s court battle for the soul of the country.

More’s tactics revolve around keeping his beloved wife Alice (Abigail Cruttenden), daughter Margaret (Annie Kingsnorth) and son-in-law Roper (Sam Phillips) out of the clutches of a vengeful, capricious King (Orlando James). In a world where it’s better to trust no one, it’s their former friend Richard Rich (Calum Finlay) who turns traitor in his ruthless pursuit of personal power.

Scenes are introduced, comically, by the chameleon everyman, The Common Man (Gary Wilmot) who slips in and out of scenes cadging coins from his betters. He is allowed witty asides, like in a Shakespeare play, where he gains the trust of the audience with his nods and winks.

A welcome revival.