ABOUT THE PLAY

 

‘I was dazzled, I had expected to find a saint - and I found a man’

Jean Anouilh

 

Anouilh’s timeless and enthralling play, beautifully captures the conflict between friendship and duty. As a young man Becket was anything but a saint and, as Henry’s closest friend enjoyed the lifestyle only royalty could afford, the two

men spending their time carefree and pleasure seeking. The terrible schism, which tears them apart, is an act of friendship and love - Henry makes Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. Finally with a purpose to his life, Becket follows his new vocation with such zeal that their two worlds can only collide.

 

In the 1964 film, Richard Burton played Becket and Peter O’Toole was Henry II, both of whom were nominated for Best Actor category at the Oscar’s. In this major new production Becket is played by one of the country’s leading film stars Dougray Scott (Enigma, Mission Impossible II, Ripley’s Game) and an accomplished stage actor who was last seen in London in Sam Mendes production of To The Green Fields Beyond at The Donmar Warehouse. Leading classical actor Jasper Britton plays Henry II, Jasper was recently in the hugely successful RSC season of The Taming Of The Shrew andThe Tamer Tamed both in Stratford and the West End. He was last seen at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket in Japes. They will be joined by an ensemble of fifteen including two choristers from Westminster Abbey. They will be singing the music of award winning composer John Cameron who has written a major new work for this production Becket: Requiem for a Friendship. 

 

John Caird (Les Miserables, Hamlet, Humble Boy), one of the country’s leading directors leads this remarkable creative team which also  includes Frederic Raphael (Far From The Madding Crowd, Eyes Wide Shut) who has written the new translation, Stephen Brimson Lewis (All’s Well That End’s Well, Les Parents Terribles) as the designer and Alison Weir the best selling historical novelist (Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Princes in the Tower) who  joins as historical consultant.

 

CAST &CREATIVE

Thomas Becket - Dougray Scott

King Henry II -  Jasper Britton

Archbishop Of Canterbury -  John Quentin

Gilbert Folliot Bishop Of London - Sean Baker

Bishop Of York - Michael Fitzgerald

Bishop Of Oxford - Arthur Kohn

Saxon Girl - Catrina Lear

Gwendolen - Bethan Bevan

First Baron - Arthur Kohn

Second Baron - Richard Stacey

Third Baron - Sean Baker

Fourth Baron - Michael Fitzgerald

Little Monk - Gareth Llewelyn

Brother William - Daniel Pirrie

Queen Mother - Ann Firbank

Eleanor Of Aquitaine - Polly Kemp

Prince Henry - Michael Cox

Provost Marshall - Paul Stewart

Arundel - Daniel Pirrie

King Louis - Michael Fitzgerald

Pope - Paul Stewart

Cardinal - Arthur Kohn

Father Superior - John Quentin

All Other Parts Played By Members Of The Company

 

Author -  Jean Anouilh

Adapted by - Frederic Raphael and Stephen Raphael

Director - John Caird

Designer - Stephen Brimson Lewis

Lighting - Peter Mumford

Historical Consultant - Alison Weir

Original Score - John Cameron

Sound Designer - John Leonard

 

QUOTES & REVIEWS

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MESMERISING…A PERIOD THRILLER - Daily Express

 

Becket offers A DEEP INTELLIGENCE - Times

 

A pair of HUGELY CHARISMATIC and STARRY PLAYERS: Dougray Scott and Jasper Britton are the requisite idols. Both are EXCELLENT - Daily Express

 

A charismatic leader is locked in a love-hate relationship with his fiscally prudent chancellor. Not for nothing does the mind turn to Blair and Brown - Guardian

 

A medieval political thriller about AMBITION and SEXUALITY, CHURCH and STATE - Daily Express

 

RIPPLING WITH ENERGY – Independent

 

POWERFUL symbolic, fictional, out of time reconciliation that eerily marries the erotic, the religious and the political - Independent

 

Searing performance CROWNS Anouilh’s tale of Henry II and his Archbishop – Evening Standard

 

Nicely conveys the regional tensions of the era - Metro

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Effective THEATRICAL entertainment - Financial Times

 

A REDISCOVERY RATHER THAN JUST ANOTHER REVIVAL - Daily Express

 

Anouilh offers EVER TIMELY VIGNETTES of a scheming Church struggling to keep its hold on a state craving more secular independence – Evening Standard

 

Dougray Scott cuts a HANDSOME and CHARISMATIC and TANTALISINGLY unfathomable figure - Independent

 

Dougray Scott’s Becket is very good at conveying the emotional unreachability that so goads Henry – Independent

 

Jasper Britton’s Henry sweeps all before him, veering between FIERCE temper tantrums and moment of contradictory TENDERNESS – Guardian

 

Memorable. BEST OF ALL is Britton’s Henry. He HEATS THE STAGE. He bares the king’s unhappy soul in outbursts of rage and longing. A VOLATILE, VULNERABLE Henry II – Evening Standard

 

The Haymarket’s noble old stage is turned into a high-vaulted, echoing transept - Daily Mail

 

Most IMPRESSIVE is a new adaptation by Frederic and Stephen Raphael – one that dares to confront the central question of the play without ever crashing through the original barriers of Anouilh’s play - Daily Express