Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
The Mirror and the Light
Gielgud Theatre
THIS production of the Mirror and the Light represents a brilliant final part of the trilogy of plays tracking the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell.
It has been a while in arriving, coming seven years, after the dramatisation of the first two books Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.
This time the star of those plays, Ben Miles plus director Jeremy Herrin, have collaborated with writer Hilary Mantel to bring this production to the stage.
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship



