Review: A Man For All Seasons by Richard Bolt

My sister Christina returned home from England in the wee hours of this morning, and during her vacation, I helped myself to two of the books in her ever-increasing stack of plays (my sister was a theatre student).  They were both on my "to-read" list, and now I have finished them both; they are #85 and #86 for 2011, both about English monarchs in very different times, and both very well-written IMO.  The first is A Man For All Seasons by Richard Bolt.

A Man For All Seasons is a play about the last few years in the life of Sir Thomas More, a lawyer, statesman, Chancellor of England, and after his death, a Roman Catholic saint and martyr.  An unlikely politician, More was promoted to the position of Chancellor of England at the insistence of King Henry VIII, towards the middle of his reign, around the time when he was angling for an annulment from his wife, Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne Boleyn.  When More withheld his support for the annulment, on the grounds that the King had no right to break from the will of the Church of Rome, he provoked the King's displeasure, thus sealing his fate. 

More is a sympathetic character, a man who knows that he is doomed, yet is unable to sacrifice his conscience in order to save his life.  He is a celebrated character in many movies, books, and on television, yet he is generally a side character.  I thought that, in Seasons (having scene the 1966 film starring Paul Scofield as More), he was finally given a chance to shine in a starring role.  But in the play, this isn't the case.  More is once again relegated to a supporting character.  The "main character" in Seasons is the so-called "Common Man", who acts as narrator, manservant, rower, lawyer, judge, and executioner, all in one.  He has by far the most lines, and is the one who speeds the story along, so to speak.  He is noticeably absent in the film version.

The play is a bit dry in parts -- someone who isn't familiar with that period in history would be confused (I was the first time I saw the movie) -- and most of the supporting characters (the King, More's wife Alice) aren't portrayed in the best of lights.  Alice is relegated once again to a shrewish, sniveling woman, rather than the plain-speaking, yet loving wife she was known as.  More's relationship with his daughter Margaret is touched on, but only briefly -- his many other children are nonexistent.  I was also disappointed that his famous last words -- dying "the King's good servant, but God's first" -- are omitted from the play.

Yet, it is a well-written piece, and you can't help but admire Thomas More, whether Catholic, Protestant, or atheist, for his conscience and moral character.

Rating: ***