A review by duncanhendry
Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, Mike Poulton
5.0
An absolutely fantastic piece of adapted storytelling. Obviously, first off the bat, it can be seen how much of the books is left behind, or stylistically communicated, for the want of not dragging anything out in a theatrical setting. But, even though I haven't read the full texts, I do not feel like anything is lost, you get a very convincing and whole view of Thomas Cromwell and the world around him. The pace of the piece is almost perfect - I remember watching parts of the TV adaptation and feeling like it was indulging itself way too much (and that was told over 6 hours of TV, still not the possible 15+ hours of reading time).
The character arc of Cromwell, in particular, over the two plays is beautiful: throughout Wolf Hall I felt almost an endearment to him, but by the end of Bring Up The Bodies, I am actually terrified by him. Most of Wolf Hall and the first section of Bring Up The Bodies, trade very well with light and shade, you could easily stage the whole of Wolf Hall as a farce, Cromwell enjoys being witty, his men around him enjoy being fools. The shit hasn't truly hit the fan by then.
Even for a piece which is about history, about things which (pretty much mostly) happened, these plays understand a bit of shock and suspense a lot more than I expected.
I am actually annoyed now that I never saw these two staged, when the RSC put them on in London last year (I'd also quite enjoy being in it). But now I can truly that I really want to dive into the actual novels, if only they weren't so bleeding long.
The character arc of Cromwell, in particular, over the two plays is beautiful: throughout Wolf Hall I felt almost an endearment to him, but by the end of Bring Up The Bodies, I am actually terrified by him. Most of Wolf Hall and the first section of Bring Up The Bodies, trade very well with light and shade, you could easily stage the whole of Wolf Hall as a farce, Cromwell enjoys being witty, his men around him enjoy being fools. The shit hasn't truly hit the fan by then.
Even for a piece which is about history, about things which (pretty much mostly) happened, these plays understand a bit of shock and suspense a lot more than I expected.
I am actually annoyed now that I never saw these two staged, when the RSC put them on in London last year (I'd also quite enjoy being in it). But now I can truly that I really want to dive into the actual novels, if only they weren't so bleeding long.