Astonishing in its physical beauty, director John Sipes' production of this oft-ignored Shakespeare history play finds some real heat in the halls of the Tudors.
Perhaps surprisingly, the play belongs not to Henry (played by the handsome, charismatic Elijah Alexander, who bears no relation to those pudgy Henry portraits), but to the scheming bad guy Cardinal Wolsey (Anthony Heald) and to the virtuous but fiery Queen Katherine (Vilma Silva), who was famously thrown over for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anne Bullen (Shakespeare's spelling, played by the lovely Christine Albright).
Sipes' stage (designed by Michael Ganio) is always gorgeous to look at, both because of the stage pictures he creates and from the gilded glory of Susan E. Mickey's breathtaking costumes.
After the passion of the dueling wives plays itself out, the play splashes through a puddle of politics, but to Sipes' credit, there's clarity amid all the royal shenanigans.