Review: WOLF HALL Plays Devil's Advocate at Main Street Theater

In this current era of vicious political battles led mostly by bloated men with dirt encrusted insides and outsides, all struggling to gain an even more disgusting amount of sway over the lives and bodies of women, WOLF HALL is more resonant than ever.

Rebecca Greene Udden directs the Main Street Theater rendition of WOLF HALL and its sequel BRING UP THE BODIES, both adapted by Mike Poulton from Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novels. Joel F. Grothe stars as Thomas Cromwell, the clever master legislator who means to manipulates the law of God and the land to secure Henry VIII (Blake Weir) an annulment from his marriage to the virtuous Katherine of Aragon (Kara Greenberg), so the king can marry the crafty and, in hindsight, overly confident Anne Boleyn. Stately dress and speech aside, it's politics as usual. Sort of.

While Cromwell is used to corruption and smarmy assholes, to this point he has not been subject to such an outrageous demand from his monarch. Nor has he had to vie with such silly, stupid men for his political standing. Frivolous as they may be, they seek and are dangerously close to attaining enough power to jail him. Sound familiar?

On the other hand, there is John McCain, ahem, I mean Cardinal Wolsey (Rutherford Cravens), an elder statesman, who definitely has no place in this new political arena. His once substantial power and purpose has been reduced to limited sway and relevance. In this new world order, it doesn't matter when he brown-noses and it matters even less when he expresses disapproval.

In WOLF HALL, part one of the series, Greene Udden's direction reveals The Devils in the play through detail. She exploits every resource available to her -- strong cast, seasoned designers, skilled writing to create a lean, mean pre-Elizabethan machine.

Though you're watching the second monarch of the oft overlooked Tudor dynasty, you will sit up in your chair, heart racing from the sometimes luscious, sometimes jaunty, and sometimes ominous music, mouth smirked as you revel in your insider status. Though there are plenty of "What is it Sebastian? I'm arranging matches" moments, the play is action packed. Greene Udden gives a character pushing a needle through a sewing circle or a candle gently flaming in the background the same grab and intensity of a popcorn flick -- without adding a space monkey plot twist.

The cast deserves praise for simply completing the play. The staging, however good it may be, would not work without the actor's dedication. The director sideswipes the negative aspects of a theatre in the round by having the characters on stage be dynamic. And even the positive aspects of the stage configuration like intimacy pose a challenge. Each actor's expression moves to the foreground (even the background actors). There's no room for wishy-washy choices. And several cast members are more than one character over the course of the play. Rutherford Cravens is both John Seymour and Cardinal Wolsey. But thanks to Cravens, the cardinal emerges as an audience favorite. He tickles your funny bone and his voice is music to the ears.

Grothe gives a wry, dry, Buster Keaton-type stone-faced humor to Cromwell. In Grothe's capable hands, Cromwell is likeable in spite of his bottom-feeding quest for survival. Making Cromwell, a character as dark and bleak as the play itself, watchable is a feat. As you likely learned from the season 7 premiere of THE WALKING DEAD, even the most seasoned performers and writers can cross the line (and the audience).

Lisa Villegas is Anne Boleyn, a woman who, like the Scarlett O'Hara of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, is not beautiful, but men seldom realize it once they are caught up in her charm.
In this biting and complex play, no one is completely clean. Kara Greenberg falls in line, making sure that her Katherine of Aragon retains her position as one of the most honorable of the characters in the play but reveals the haughtiness and unearned sense of superiority that she passes to her daughter, renown Protestant persecutor and executor Queen Mary I of England, i.e. "Bloody Mary."

One thing may niggle you: Henry VIII (Blake Weir) is nice. Because the play focuses so intensely on Thomas Cromwell clawing his way to relevance, it conceals the extent of Henry VIII's awfulness. Lest we forget, the historical figure was a ruler concerned with his own ambition at the expense of his kingdom and people. His court of scheming yes men was nothing compared to his lust for Anne Boleyn and blood. And, by most accounts, he was much less conflicted about his actions than WOLF HALL suggests.

The design is even more detailed than the performances. Margaret Crowley's costumes evoke the bygone era and with few exceptions inspire such trust that you can't help but believe you are in Henry VIII's court. As does Properties Design by Rodney WalswortH. Shawn W. St. John's sound design wraps around each scene, which could cause disharmony. But it doesn't. His sound fits just as snuggly over the play as a whole. Light designer Eric L. Marsh provides a fitting backdrop and sculptural space for the dark, clandestine back room deals so heavily featured throughout the play. And deft switching between dim and luminescence give the brief scenes a flickering, filmic quality. With his help, unlike most of your options at the cinema today, WOLF HALL is truly a moving picture. Then Rebecca Greene Udden brings all these elements together to create a great harmony.

You know where the story ends. You know what the future brings. But WOLF HALL makes you want to relive history again and again. Who knows what BRING UP THE BODIES will bring. If the precursor is any indication, it's something terribly and magnificently beautiful.

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WOLF HALL performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays; and 3 p.m. Sundays through December 18 at Main Street Theater, 2540 Times Blvd. 713-524-6706. mainstreettheater.com

Part II: BRING UP THE BODIES opens October 29.

Photo credit: Pin Lim / Forest Photography

L-R: King Henry VIII (Blake Weir) and Thomas Cromwell (Joel Grothe)
Kara Greenberg as Katherine of Aragon, Henry the VIII's first wife.
Anne Boleyn (Lisa Villegas), King Henry VIII (Blake Weir) and the WOLF HALL ensemble
L-R: Rafe Sadler (Will Sanders), Cristophe (Laurent Prat), Thomas Cromwell (Joel Grothe), Thomas More (Joel Sandel)
Joel Grothe as Thomas Cromwell