Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the recent visitations made by Howard Brenton and David Edgar to the period of English history between 1530 and 1610, in Anne Boleyn (2010) and Written on the Heart (2011). It compares the two playwrights’ use of past history to that tradition of ‘costume drama’ initiated by, amongst others, Robert Bolt with A Man for All Seasons (1960), and suggests ways in which the Brenton and Edgar plays are crucially linked in terms of their operation as political dramatists in a much changed world from that of the late 1960s when their first plays were staged. In this article I will be concerned with three main, but related areas. After considering this appropriation of the historical drama, I consider the implications of Brenton and Edgar, two playwrights whose earlier work had largely grounded itself in the here and now, turning to what might be thought of as a ‘retreat into history’. I then argue the need for a fresh look at the way in which political theatre operates in a world much altered from that in which Brenton and Edgar’s careers first developed: offering points of connection with the development of that work, in part through their work on Bertolt Brecht. And finally, I will indicate ways in which the use of their material ties in with current (and contentious) debates about political drama and political performance.