Crown Matrimonial
July 22, 2008
The Lowry, Salford
21 - 26 Jul 2008
The abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 to enable himself to marry twice divorced Wallis Simpson less than a year after succeeding his father to the throne sent shockwaves through both the Royal Family of the time and the general public. Furthermore, the event provided the gossiping foreign press with a wealth of material for attention-grabbing headlines.
Little, it would seem, has changed and with the modern day Royal Family used to scandal this revival of Royce Ryton’s ‘Crown Matrimonial’ makes efforts to demonstrate the relevance of the writers work to a modern day audience.
As Queen Mary, the new Kings mother, Patricia Routledge gives a dignified performance successfully portraying a woman in turmoil. Whilst offering genuine sympathy with her son’s predicament on an emotional level, she also staunchly strives to make her son understand the damage that his planned marriage to a twice divorced woman may do the Royal Family. She, and her daughter Mary, the Princess Royal played ably by Rebecca Saire, firmly believe that Edward (known to his family as David) should prioritise his devotion to the throne over the woman he loves. These sentiments and beliefs are shared by the remainder of the Royal Family and are expressed ardently by Elizabeth, The Duchess of York who, as the wife of Edward’s brother and due to become Queen upon Edward’s abdication, chastises Edward in front of this family for his seemingly selfish behaviour. Emma Handy is brilliant in this role and captures the strong character of Elizabeth expertly.
The sole defender of his behaviour is Edward himself, played by Rufus Wright. His impassioned pleas that he cannot be the King he wants to be without the woman he loves by his side largely falls on deaf ears. But this was, after all, 1936 and divorce in those days was deeply frowned upon. Edward must surely have been naïve to truly believe that he had any other choice but abdication if he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson. Wright doesn’t play Edward in this naïve manner, however, and instead he opts to portray him as a passionate man who is willing from the start to make this massive sacrifice thus risking alienation from his family. He is stubborn and head strong and Wright puts this across reasonably effectively.
At 2 hours and 20 minutes this is not a long play but it suffers with its pacing. An attractive and detailed set by Jonathan Fensom isn’t used to its full potential by Director David Grindley. He allows the action to move a snails pace within a fairly confined area and coupling this lack of action with a complicated script the result is a mind that can easily wander. It’s a shame as the solid cast could really soar if the overall production was stronger.
- Malcolm Wallace
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Set in the sitting room of Queen Mary the play chronicaled events leading up to the abdication of Edward VIII. It is perhaps hard for people of my generation to contemplate what a momentus event this was not only for the royal family but for the country as a whole.
Patricia Routledge playing the role of Queen Mary as regal and unemotional as she struggles to bring Edward to see that is duty lay with family and country rather than the woman he loved. Routledge succeded in throwing off the shackles of Hyacynth Bucket and her underplaying of the role brought a sympathetic side to a quite unsympatheic character.
Rufus Wright brought out the playful, thoughtful and yet troubled character of Edward VIII but to my mind the show was stolen by Richard Hansell as the Duke of York who captured the mannerisms and look of the late king so well I was transported to another era.
The only downside of the play to me was that large sections of the conversation seemed quite contrived. I will free admit that that I am not very often privy to conversations in royal sitting rooms, but some of the dialogue I could not imagine real human beings, whatever their social rank, taking part in.
The set though looking quite authentic did seem a little static and did not really help the flow of the play.
All in all a very well acted play with some thought provoking themes. An excellent evenings entertainment.