A Man for All Seasons at Richmond Theatre

My only previous exposure to A Man for All Seasons was being taken to see it at the cinema when at school, sometime in the '70s, so that I could learn some history from it. I never did well at history at school (except one term when we had a supply teacher, but that's another story) so I am not sure that worked.

While I was not particularly enticed by the play the draw of Martin Shaw was obvious so I was happy to give it a second chance.

The name was a big drawn, and possibly a big cost too, and the seats were more expensive that usual which drove me upstairs from my usual position into the Upper Circle where seat A10 was still £25 with my ATG discount. 

At that price there was little to lose and the view from up their is good, as the picture below proves.

Other people thought so too and a group of four of us went together; I am able to get four discount tickets per show and it is nice to be able to share the love of theatre with friends.

I remembered the bare bones of the Sir Thomas More story  but history has remained of little interest to me over the intervening fifty years and so knew nothing of the detail and was happy to have that presented to me.

I loved the staging!

The mood remained nicely dark and moody throughout while various props moved in and out briskly as the story moved from one scene to the next.

Martin Shaw was a dominant Sir Thomas More and easily lived up to his star billing.

Gary Willmot played "The Common Man" to good effect as a narrator, foil and modest participant.

Edward Bennett was might fine too as Oliver Cromwell, the main antagonist to Sir Thomas. In this he was the proxy for Henry VIII how made surprisingly few appearances in a story that was all about his claim to be the head of the Church of England.

And that hints at my problem with the play, the story did not really add up.  The ending was particularly problematic and might have spoiled the evening had not the production been so good in all other aspects.