Subject
Allan Wilkie, Allan Wilkie Company, Anne Boleyn (c.1501-1536), Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c.1473-1530), Catherine of Aragon (1484-1536), Duke of Buckingham, Edward Stafford (1478-1521), Henry VIII (1481-1547), His Majesty's Theatre, Miss Hunter-Watts, Miss Mildred Howard, Mr Alexander Marsh, Mr John Cairns, Mr William Lockhart, papal envoy, play, performance, Perth, Old England, stage, Tudor times, WA, Western Australia.
Description
This article published in The Sunday Times reviews a production of ‘Henry VIII’ staged at the His Majesty's Theatre in Perth by the Allan Wilkie Company in 1930. Assisted by elaborate scenes and plush costumes it succeeded, according to the article, in bringing to life the Tudor period: an age of ‘a powerful diplomatic Cardinal that rose from the lowliness of being a son of a butcher; who rose to share the prominence of his regal master; of the beautiful and ill-fated loves of Henry, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn and of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham’. A criticism levelled against the play was that its attempt to include so many different historical events could lead to incoherency, however, the general consensus of the article was that this was countered by its spectacular revival of ‘Old England’.