Anne of the Thousand Days

Anne of the Thousand Days (1948), a verse drama by Maxwell Anderson. [Shubert Theatre, 288 perf.] Henry VIII ( Rex Harrison) is tired of both his wife, Queen Catherine, and his mistress, Mary Boleyn. He lusts after Mary's younger sister, Anne ( Joyce Redman), so he decides he will divorce Catherine and marry Anne, even if he must split with the Church of Rome to do so. At first, however, his most stubborn opponent is not the Church, but Anne herself. She would marry Percy, Earl of Northumberland ( Robert Duke), so the determined Henry callously forces Percy to marry someone else. Percy dies shortly after the marriage, and though Anne blames Henry for his death, she nevertheless finds herself falling in love with the king. The marriage begins happily enough. Only when Anne gives birth to a daughter does Henry's love sour. Deciding another queen would more likely give him a male heir, Henry confronts Anne with the choice of exile or death. So that her baby, Elizabeth, may someday sit on the English throne, Anne elects to die. When she is dead Henry realizes that his feelings for her still run deep. “It would have been easier,” he muses, “to forget you living than to forget you dead.” Critics were divided about the merits of the blank verse drama produced by the Playwrights' Company, though the majority sided with the Sun, which hailed it as “a robust and vivid play.” That New York's critics liked it at all surprised many, for in tryouts Anne of the Thousand Days had been written off as a hopeless failure.