Bloodline

Archive Listings for Bloodline

T01691251375 (BROCKLEY10) Producer Women in Theatre. Producer Evcol Entertainment. Producer Simon James Collier. Producer Linda Wilkinson. Director Simon James Collier. Director Omar F Okai (movement). Music Renell Shaw. Design David Shields. Sound Matt Hall. Costume David Shields. Costume Christina Pomeroy. Lighting Ciaran Cunningham. Performer Louise Dumayne. Performer Jane Murphy. Performer Alistair Scott. Performer Richard Warrick.

9 Nov 10 to 4 Dec 10

Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, Outer London :: V299 listing details L02086992085

Details

Play :: 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.

Author

Linda Wilkinson