Normally, when you see someone wave an admonitory finger and "talk of God's law," you know you're in the presence of costume drama.
But Seasons Player' production of Robert Bolt's A Man for all Seasons looks as if it will be something rather different. Played in modern dress, it will, in the words of producer Carl Davies, be an austere production of an austere play.
The venue is an elegant rosewood teahouse and performance space near the Taipei World Trade Center. At a rehearsal on Wednesday evening it took a few moments to shift from the ambiance of classical China to London in the 16th century. But once the change of key was made, the comparisons were obvious enough. As one of the actors pointed out, the play takes place in an England when imprisonment without trial and confessions extracted under torture were both commonplace.
First performed in 1960, and made into a classic film starring Paul Scofield in 1966, A Man for all Seasons tells the story of Thomas More, executed for treason in 1535 after having been Henry Vlll's highest-ranking official. He had refused to give his approval to the king's break with the Roman Church, and the establishment in its place of the Church of England.
"As Bolt remarks, there's a point beyond which some people won't go," said Davies. "I see Thomas More and Nelson Mandela as two such men. More paid with his life, Mandela with his long years in jail. What this play is about is integrity." The production has attracted a strong team for its More, Davies getting the measure of the devious and cruel Thomas Cromwell, and Dean Karalekas and Paul Barlow both effective as the Duke of Norfolk and The Common Man, respectively.
A Man for All Seasons will be staged at 7:30 the Han Tang Yuefu Auditorium, 12th Fl., 48 Keelung Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei (臺北市基隆路二段48號12樓) tomorrow and Sunday and on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5. Tickets are NT$250. For further information, call 0930-796-864.
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