Theatre review: A Man for All Seasons

Robert Bolt's 1960 play A Man for All Seasons is considered something of a modern classic, and one that seems to attract actors to revisit its lead over the years - Martin Shaw previously played Thomas More in 2006, and returns nearly two decades later for this touring production finishing its run at the Pinter. Covering the familiar ground of Henry VIII's spilt both from his first wife and the Catholic Church, it does so from the point of view of More, the Lord Chancellor whose refusal to undermine the Pope's authority and subsequent fall from grace saw him posthumously considered a martyr and saint by the Church. When we first meet him he's managing to hold on to his power and influence, but as soon as it becomes impossible to accept Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon without also endorsing the idea that the Church ruled wrongly on the issue, he quietly resigns his position.

Theatre review: Twelve Angry Men

There's lots of shows opening in the West End right now and for a moment I thought tonight's had got a bit confused: The sound effect of a speeding train over the opening made me wonder if I'd rocked up at the Hitchcock adaptation a week early. But the sound turns out to be on-theme for this stage transfer of another famous film, which Reginald Rose adapted from his own 1954 screenplay. The Twelve Angry Men in question are the jury in a murder case, twelve white men deciding whether a black teenager stabbed his father in the middle of the night. Eleven jurors immediately cast their guilty vote but Juror 8 (Television's Martin Shaw) has reasonable doubt, and asks only that the rest take the time to discuss the case before condemning a man to death. The evidence is largely circumstantial but there's a lot of it - yet it turns out to be easier to poke holes in than the perfunctory defence made it look in court.