The Last Wife

Jericho Arts Centre to October 1, 2023
Tickets from $29 ($15 Student with ID) at www.united players.com or 604-224-8007

Posted September 11, 2023

Thank you, thank you, Sarah Rodgers, Artistic Director of United Players, for opening your 2023-2024 season with The Last Wife, a smart, witty, imaginative and thoroughly engaging 2-1/2 hours of superb live theatre.

Playwright Kate Hennig spins a tale of love and betrayal from the perspective of Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII’s six wives. Hennig contemporizes the language, the costumes and the sensibility: Katherine, also known as Kate, is a thoroughly modern woman: ambitious, sexy, independent, fashion-wise, educated (she speaks several languages including Latin) and above all, she’s likeable. She’s a devoted stepmother to troubled and troublesome, twenty-something Mary (who will become Bloody Mary, Queen of England) and curious, studious, adolescent Bess (who will become Elizabeth I). Henry, volatile and nasty to Mary and Bess, is a good father, nevertheless, to Eddie (who will, at the age of 9 become Edward VI). Henry is an ardent lover of Parr, although he does at one point, sign her death warrant on the charge of witchcraft and treason. He later withdraws it – and therein lies another fascinating part of Kate’s story.

Katherine’s greatest accomplishment, however, is persuading Henry to grant both Mary and Bess legal entitlement to the throne (but only after the death of Eddie, Henry’s only male heir.)

The Last Wife is a completely absorbing take on the patriarchy, the status of 16^th century women in Britain, the complex relationship between Katherine and Henry, and an explanation of how Katherine – alone of all his previous wives – becomes Regent, ruling the realm in Henry’s absence when he’s away at war with France. And she does it with aplomb. Too much aplomb for Henry’s liking.

Ably directed by Laura McLean, the cast – non-professional with the exception of Matthew Bissett (Henry VIII) – performs with all the skill and confidence of professionals. Courtney Shields (Kate) is outstanding as she spars with Henry, plays nursemaid,  playful lover, kind and sensitive mother and protector of his children by previous wives. As Regent, Shields shows us capable Kate, clever Kate, uncompromising Kate. It’s a terrific role and Shields shows us all Kate’s many facets. Moreover, we like her and suffer with her the violence and indignities Henry eventually lays on her.

Bissett, a United Players’ favourite, makes a splendid Henry VIII: witty, coarse, demanding and  volatile. There are – amazingly – times when we almost like this Henry because of his wit. But not quite. And not for long.

Mehdi Lamrini is Katherine’s love interest and Lamrini is young and handsome and sexy – everything you’d expect this Kate to risk everything for.

Junita Thiessen and Lauren Alberico, as Mary and Bess respectively, also figure largely in The Last Wife. We see in Thiessen a fractious, argumentative future Bloody Mary, and in Alberico, a clever Elizabeth I in the making.

Rickie Wang brings us Eddie, a child, eager for his father’s affection and, later, a nine-year-old thrust suddenly upon the throne recently made vacant by the death of his father.

Costume designer Sydney Cavanagh keeps Shields in a constant change of dress – sleeveless and always showing a little, discreet cleavage. Henry sometimes appears in a suit but often he’s in shirtsleeves and now and again, in his underwear. Cavanagh really shows her stuff with various ensembles worn by Thiessen: black on black, colourful shawls.

Set design by Ryan Cormack (evocatively lit by Hina Nishioka) features a back wall of fifteen grey, granite-appearing squares upon which are, in shadowy relief, human faces.  Furniture, including the conjugal bed, is efficiently moved on and off by the performers. Sound designer/composer is Daniel Tessy  and the soundscape varies from lush orchestral to piano to contemporary techno – a fine score that, in bringing the music into the present, reminds us that in some respects – most notably sexual politics – not much has changed since the Tudors.

The Last Wife puts a thoroughly contemporary spin on these characters and the playwright has taken a lot of liberty with history. We know the dates of wars and accessions but it’s fair game to imagine the inner workings of the hearts and minds of the characters playing their part in time past.

Hennig entertains us, asks us to believe Katherine Parr was far more than ‘just’ the wife of Henry VIII. While Henry was off conquering France and, no doubt, philandering with various French wenches along the way, Katherine was moulding the characters of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I and Edward VI. Her influence on these soon-to-be rulers of the realm was considerable,  as imagined by playwright Hennig.

And finally, the last line of The Last Wife is the best last line I have heard for a very long time. Wait for it.