Three Queens

April 25, 2024

23rd April – 11th May 2024

It is a dark stormy night in February 1554.

A mournful dirge, flickering candlelight and menace pervade as a young hooded woman is led from her place of incarceration at the Tower of London to an execution block.

The stage is set to reveal an imagined moment of history featuring three Queens with their eyes on the prize: the throne of England. It is a night of high drama in a debut play by poet Rosamund Gravelle.

At this turbulent time of Tudor history Queen Mary wears the crown of a nation riven by religious intolerance between Catholics and Protestants following Henry VIII’s Reformation.

Queen Mary believes her God-given duty is to save the soul of England and her subjects.

Future Queen Elizabeth I is desperate to avoid the fate of her mother Anne Boleyn who Henry had executed when Elizabeth was two years old.

And teenage Lady Jane Grey’s rebellion seeks to unravel everything. The executioner awaits to seal her fate. But not before an exhausting, emotional night when the three women manoeuvre for power and influence. The stakes cannot be higher in this dangerous dance of death.

The action takes place in real time over one sleepless night when the women are carving out their place in history against a backdrop of soul-searching, confessions and prayers, Machiavellian deeds, religious fervour and intrigue.

“Sharon Willems directs a beautifully written production with a talented cast”

What will induce Jane to save her life: marriage, freedom, the promise of unlimited books? Will this simple country-loving woman carry out her threat to ‘paint this land with Catholic blood’?

Will Mary marry into Spanish royalty?

Can Elizabeth remain true to her protestation: ‘I don’t want to be a Queen if it means killing another’?

Sharon Willems directs a beautifully written production with a talented cast: BECKY BLACK as Mary I, MARTHA CROW as Lady Jane Grey, LES KENNY-GREEN as Cardinal Reginald Pole, SALLY SHARP as Kat Ashley, ELIZA SHEA as Princess Elizabeth, SUSHANT SHEKHAR as Sir Robert Dudley
Music by Dimitri Kennaway and lighting design by Leo Bacica underscore the tension in 75 taut minutes without an interval. Dry ice and up-lighting from dozens of candles create an ethereal atmosphere.

Barons Court Theatre offers a tiny space in a pub basement — beneath the Curtain Up pub — with the audience perched on 52 vintage cinema seats on three sides. It’s ideal of intimate pieces but the stage can be too cluttered and busy with more than a handful of actors. Props need to be kept to a minimum, and costumes kept simple, despite the odd ruff and cardinal’s scarlet robes.

A post-show Q&A follows Thursday night performances, featuring: Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, former leader of the House of Lords; Dr Elizabeth Norton, the eminent Tudor historian; and playwright Gravelle.

Gravelle admitted this long dark night was her use of dramatic licence. ‘Historically they didn’t meet – Jane never left the Tower — this was a fictionalised dramatic device.’

She calls the Tudors a family of passion, betrayal, and fierce intelligent women.

The play asks all our characters about what having power means and how that conflicts with the instincts of wanting to love and wanting to protect each other.

When we have power, what do we do with it? Do we want to control, to build each other up, break each other down, sabotage them or ourselves?

And what of the love, jealousy, rivalries and, yes, the hate from the past – how does that impinge this dance around power for these women?

I hope Three Queens makes people think about the complex world these people had to live in and how they dealt with power in their relationships with each other, but also how these questions and issues still live with us today.

In a world where no one trusts, where the price of disagreement is death, what would you do? Would you make a stand?’

Dr. Norton explained to the Q&A session the Three Queens’ motivation: ‘All three want the Crown and are driven by that desire. Women weren’t supposed to want things and have political desires. Elizabeth reigned for over 40 years when there’s a great deal of misogyny.’

Baroness Evans said you needed self-belief for the challenge of leadership. Her reaction when she first saw the play was: ‘Oh my God, literally it’s like it is now. I wish I could say life is different now. Things haven’t changed much over the centuries.’