A gripping, complex Tudor queen whodunit
The Virgin Trial
(out of 4) By Kate Hennig. Directed by Alan Dilworth. Through Sept. 30 at the Studio Theatre, 99 Downie St., Stratford. stratfordfestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600 The first play in Kate Hennig’s trilogy about Tudor queens, The Last Wife, portrayed Henry VIII’s last wife Katherine Parr as an early modern feminist superhero.
This next one is all about girl power circa 1549: in it, Hennig explores, with a bold combination of historical research and creative moxie, the teenage years of Elizabeth I, with particular attention to the epithet so often associated with her, the Virgin Queen.
While that first play sometimes felt unfocused dramatically, The Virgin Trial — which picks up several years after the previous story left off — is tight as a drum. It’s thrilling to observe Hennig’s writerly voice develop in real time through this series.
If you didn’t see the first play, don’t worry: they stand on their own. For those following the series, there is great pleasure in seeing the central characters and performances evolve. Here as before, Bahia Watson plays Elizabeth (called Bess) and Sara Farb plays her older half-sister Mary, known to history as Bloody Mary.
Hennig’s big creative gambit is to mingle past and present: The plays treat known historical figures, events and locations, but the characters speak in the language of today and wear contemporary costumes that make some nods to Renaissance shapes and fabrics.
The Virgin Trial follows the form of a procedural thriller. Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour (called Thom, played by Brad Hodder) has been arrested for treason, suspected of trying to harm young King Edward VI (who remains offstage). Edward’s silken Lord Protector Ted (Nigel Bennett) and his scary henchwoman Eleanor (Yanna McIntosh) summon Bess, to see what she knows about the alleged crime. Turns out she knows a lot. In The Last Wife, Thom was a secondary character, Katherine Parr’s lover, who marries Katherine after Henry VIII’s death. But Thom, here a 40-year-old man, also has a connec- tion with 14-year-old Bess, and this play explores that troubled and troubling bond.
Also tied up in the story are Bess’s loyal governess (Laura Condlln) and accountant (André Morin). While Bennett’s and McIntosh’s characters are not as fully drawn as the central ones, these performances are all committed and convincing.
The action jumps back and forth in time over several years.
But this doesn’t mean things are hard to follow. Rather, Alan Dilworth’s sharp, tightly paced production draws the audience in and keeps them gripped through every twist in an unfolding story of power, loyalty and betrayal.
In this complex whodunit, the biggest mystery that Hennig explores is Bess herself, as played by Watson with an extraordinary combination of vulnerability and steel. Who can this young woman trust? Can we trust her?
As Bess matures before our eyes, the bond between her and Catholic, tightly strung Mary is tested. The scenes between Watson and Farb are the production’s strongest, full of ironic humour as well as a very moving current of compassion.
Also effective are Watson’s scenes with Hodder, as Bess begins to articulate the power of her status as a virgin, even as that status is revealed as a necessary, perhaps convenient ruse.
By the end of the play, Hennig has anatomized the emergence of a thoroughly realized political creature, the lines between her personal and public identities completely effaced. “No truth, no lies,” Bess says. “Welcome to life at the top,” Mary says.
Hennig is writing the final play in the trilogy, called Father’s Daughter — perhaps with a focus on Mary?
I can’t wait to see where this great historical yarn goes next. Given the public’s seemingly insatiable interest in stories about the British monarchy ( The Crown, The Tudors, Wolf Hall), some smart TV or film producer should snap up the rights to this series straightaway.
It’s thrilling to see actress Kate Hennig’s writerly voice develop in real time in this series