SOURCE: Jackson, Russell. “Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, 1996-98: or, The Search for a Policy.” Shakespeare Quarterly 50, no. 2 (1999): 185-205.

In the following excerpted review, Jackson lauds Gregory Doran's 1996-97 production of Henry VIII at the Swan Theater as a skillful balance of ceremony and stagecraft.

At the 1996-97 Swan season the Shakespearean (or part-Shakespearean) attraction was Henry VIII, directed by Greg Doran. High doors at the back of the stage, with All Is True inscribed on them in large, elegant letters, opened periodically to reveal spectacular tableaux, beginning with a representation of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, with Henry on a golden charger, flanked by his queen and his cardinal. The space was later used for more intimate “discoveries,” but its association with spectacle was turned to good account for the final show, the christening of Elizabeth. Here Ann Bullen was brought onstage, to one side of the...