Actors Co-op brings 16th-century English history to vibrant life with their 21st-century revival of the 1962 Best Play Tony winner A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt’s thought-provoking if overlong look at Sir Thomas More, torn between moral conscience and political expediency during Henry VIII’s reign as King.

 The Common Man (a gender-bending Deborah Marlowe) serves as our fourth-wall-breaking narrator and guide while stepping into a variety of roles, initially as Steward to Sir Thomas (Bruce Ladd), whose sense of morality and ethics becomes immediately evident when, the better to remove any suspicion of political corruption, he presents his young protégé Richard Rich (Mitchell Lam Hau) with a goblet given to him as a bribe.

Not long after, a meeting with Cardinal Wolsley (understudy Darrell Philip) offers More a greater moral dilemma.

King Henry wishes to remarry, a deed that would hardly need Sir Thomas’s approval were it not that Queen Catherine, his wife of twenty years, is still very much alive (albeit incapable of giving him a male heir) and Henry needs all the support he can get in securing the Pope’s blessing for an annulment.

 Unfortunately for Henry, Thomas takes his Catholicism very seriously, so much so that when later on he is asked to sign an oath declaring Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England, it becomes a matter of life and death.

Supporting characters include More’s loyal wife Lady Alice (Treva Tegtmeier), his marriageable daughter Lady Margaret (Elsa Gay), Margaret’s unfortunately Lutheran beau William Roper (Isaac Jay), Spanish ambassador Signor Chapuys (Vito Viscuso), King Henry himself (understudy Kevin Shewey), and most significantly, the power-hungry Thomas Cromwell (John Allee).

 That’s a lot of names to keep track of, and Bolt’s play’s first act suffers from an abundance of plot threads. (The playwright’s Oscar-winning 1966 screen adaptation perhaps wisely left Chapuys on the cutting room floor.)

Fortunately, A Man For All Seasons takes flight in its second act, offering audiences some of the most gripping, thought-provoking, and ultimately quite moving theater in town.

It helps that The Tudors and Wolf Hall have reacquainted TV viewers with Henry and his marital woes, and it hardly hurts that today’s political climate makes Sir Thomas’s insistence on doing what’s right no matter what the cost more relevant than ever.

Under Thom Babbes’s assured direction, Bolt’s play provides a company of Actors Co-op members and visiting artists with ample opportunities to strut their dramatic stuff.

 Despite a not quite razor-sharp command of Bolt’s words, Ladd delivers a powerful, committed lead performance that recalls his similarly challenged John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

Tegtmeier is simply devastating as Alice, and never more so than in her final moments with her man; Allee makes for supremely hiss-worthy Cromwell; Marlowe’s potpourri of characters (boatman, jailer, jury foreman among them) are all of them delights; and the sensational Shewey runs so fiery a gamut of emotions during Henry’s sole scene that the King’s charismatic presence is felt long after his stormy exit.

Co-op newbies Gay (a lovely Margaret), Hau (a conniving Richard), and Jay (a boyishly appealing William) all make strong impressions, and Viscuso’s Chapuys, Phillip’s Wolsey and Thomas Cranmer, and Sean McHugh’s Duke Of Norfolk are effective as well.

 Scenic designer Rich Rose’s set transforms ingeniously from residence to riverside to garden to inn to jail cell; Lisa D. Katz’s lighting and projections are striking, though the former presents challenges to actors in finding their light; Shon LeBlanc’s 16th-century costumes and hair are top-notch designs too; and sound designer Juan Sanson earns high marks for mixing dramatic effects with music composed by none other than King Henry himself.

A Man For All Seasons is produced by Carly Lopez. Adam Michael Rose is dialect coach. Eric White is stage manager and Thomas Zabilski is assistant stage manager.

Sir Thomas More’s moral challenges may be five centuries old, but today more than ever, they offer lessons to be learned. Though A Man For All Seasons could stand a trim, it makes for yet another jewel in Actors Co-op’s much-studded crown.

Actors Co-op, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood.
www.actorsco-op.org

–Steven Stanley
March 24, 2018
Photos: Matthew Gilmore

Tags: Actors Co-op, Henry VIII, Los Angeles Theater Review, Robert Bolt, Thomas More