| The Mirror and the Light | |
|---|---|
 Poster for the West End production | |
| Written by | Hilary Mantel (novel and play) Ben Miles (play) |
| Date premiered | 23 September 2021 |
| Place premiered | Gielgud Theatre, London |
| Setting | Sixteenth century England |
The Mirror and the Light is a play by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles based on Mantel's 2020 book of the same name. It is the third part to Wolf Hall Parts One & Two which is a double-bill play based on Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies .
Following the award-winning West End and Broadway productions of Wolf Hall Parts One & Two, the play is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company (with Playful Productions) and opened in London's West End at the Gielgud Theatre from 23 September running until 28 November 2021. Co-adapter Ben Miles will reprise his role as Thomas Cromwell with Nathaniel Parker reprising his role Henry VIII. The play is directed by Jeremy Herrin, designed by Christopher Oram with music by Stephen Warbeck. [1] [2] On 22 July 2021 further casting was announced. [3]
| Character | West End (2021) |
|---|---|
| Thomas Cromwell | Ben Miles |
| King Henry VIII | Nathaniel Parker |
| Anna of Cleves | Rosanna Adams |
| Christophe & Edward Seymour | Paul Adeyefa |
| Princess Mary | Melissa Allan |
| Ensemble | Samuel Awoyo |
| Duke of Suffolk | Nicholas Boulton |
| Elizabeth Seymour | Aurora Dawson-Hunte |
| French Ambassador | Ian Drysdale |
| Ensemble | Mark Extance |
| Lady Rochford / Abness | Jo Herbert |
| Ensemble | Andrew Hodges |
| Ensemble | Niahm James |
| Gregory Cromwell | Terique Jarrett |
| Ralph Sadler | Jordan Kouamé |
| Thomas Wriothesley | Geoffrey Lumb |
| Jane Seymour & Katherine Howard | Olivia Marcus |
| Helen Sadler & Dorothea Wolsey | Umi Myers |
| Eustace Chapuys | Matthew Pidgeon |
| Walter Cromwell / Holbein | Liam Smith |
| Archbishop Cranmer | Giles Taylor |
| Kingston & The Ghost of Wolsey | Tony Turner |
| Richard Riche | Leo Wan |
| Duke of Norfolk | Nicholas Woodeson |
Into the Woods is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, the future King Edward VI. She was the only wife of Henry to receive a queen's funeral or to be buried beside him in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Simon Slater is a British music director, composer, narrator, and actor. He has composed more than 300 original music scores for film, theatre, TV and radio, and is a member of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.
Benjamin Charles Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, from 2002 to 2003, as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2017) and George in episode 8 "The One That Holds Everything" in the TV drama The Romanoffs (2018).
Nathaniel Parker is an English stage and screen actor best known for playing the lead in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, and Agravaine de Bois in the fourth series of Merlin.
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, Every Day Is Mother's Day, was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.
Mike Poulton is an English writer, translator and adapter of classic plays for contemporary audiences. He has been Tony nominated for his play 'Fortune's Fool' along with his adaptations of 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up the Bodies'.
Henry VIII and his reign have frequently been depicted in art, film, literature, music, opera, plays, and television.
Lydia Leonard is a British stage, film and television actress, best known for her roles in the television series Bring Up the Bodies, Ten Percent and The Crown.
Wolf Hall is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".
Jeremy Herrin is an English theatre director. He is the artistic director of Headlong Theatre.
Bring Up the Bodies is an historical novel by Hilary Mantel; sequel to the award-winning Wolf Hall; and part of a trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII. It won the 2012 Booker Prize and the 2012 Costa Book of the Year. The final novel in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, was published in March 2020.
The Mirror & The Light is a historical novel by the English writer Hilary Mantel. Following Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), it is the final instalment in her trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, minister in the court of King Henry VIII, covering the last four years of his life, from 1536 until his death by execution in 1540.
Wolf Hall is a British television serial first broadcast on BBC Two in January 2015. The six-part series is an adaptation of two of Hilary Mantel's novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, a fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More, followed by Cromwell's success in freeing the king of his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Wolf Hall was first broadcast in April 2015 in the United States on PBS and in Australia on BBC First. It was reported in 2022 that a second series, covering the final novel in the trilogy, was in pre-production, with Mark Rylance and director Peter Kosminsky returning.
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The Lehman Trilogy is a three-act play by Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massini. It follows the lives of three immigrant brothers from when they arrive in America and found an investment firm through to the collapse of the company in 2008. It has been translated into 24 languages, staged by such directors as Luca Ronconi and Sam Mendes, and was later published as a novel. An English translation of the play by Mirella Cheeseman was produced in the West End in 2018 by the National Theatre. The production was directed by Sam Mendes and included the cast of Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles. It earned five Laurence Olivier Award nominations.
Six is a British musical comedy with music, book, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a pop concert. In the show, each of the wives take turns telling their story, to see who suffered the most from Henry VIII.
Wolf Hall Parts One & Two is a two-part play based on Hilary Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, adapted for the stage by Mike Poulton. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More.
2:22 A Ghost Story is a thriller play by Danny Robins. It premiered in the West End in 2021, and received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play the following year.
Thomas Cromwell was Chief Minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1534 to 1540. He played a prominent role in the important events of Henry's reign, including the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the execution of Anne Boleyn, the marriage to Anne of Cleves, the Dissolution of the monasteries, and the English Reformation. These dramatic events have provided the inspiration for plays, novels and films from shortly after his death until modern times.