Details

What it takes to keep a country safe - has been done. Set during the most turbulent years of the Wars of Religion, in which thousands were slaughtered, Bloodline looks at how the future of England relied on just two people, whose actions shaped Europe for generations to come. For fifteen years Bess of Hardwick and her husband George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, were the custodians of Mary Stuart, who was next in line to the English throne. Mary was a staunch Catholic as well as being a beautiful and very dangerous woman. Yet neither Bess nor George were unwavering Protestants. George himself inclined towards Mary's viewpoint, whilst Bess was uninterested in anything other than her own dynastic aspirations. At any time they could have easily decided that to support Mary, against Queen Elizabeth 1st, would be their path to glory. Their custody of Mary bankrupted George, destroyed their marriage and sent him mad. It would have been so easy for it to have been otherwise. Yet these most unlikely of heroes, kept Mary secure, thus ensuring that England was not driven apart by the religious hatred unleashed elsewhere in Europe where massacre and the Inquisition left wounds that fester to this day. Bloodline is the story of three people thrown together who find respect and love amidst a treachery of which they were all knowingly a part.

Cast/Performers

Louise Dumayne, Jane Murphy, Alistair Scott, Richard Warrick

Creatives/Company

Author: Linda Wilkinson
Producer(s): Women in Theatre, Evcol Entertainment, Simon James Collier, Linda Wilkinson
Director(s): Simon James Collier, Omar F Okai (movement)
Music: Renell Shaw
Design: David Shields
Sound: Matt Hall
Costume(s): David Shields, Christina Pomeroy
Lighting: Ciaran Cunningham