Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603 was the longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor.
But ascending the throne was no walk in the park, as Shuswap Theatre's latest production explores in The Virgin Trial, which runs from April 25 to May 11.
This is Canadian playwright Kate Hennig's engrossing follow-up to The Last Wife, the first in her Tudor Queens trilogy. In the Virgin Queen she reimagines a scandalous and little-known story of Elizabeth the First before she was Queen.
Hennig continues to explore themes of victim shaming, sexual consent and the extraordinary abilities of girls on their voyage to womanhood.
King Henry VIII and his last wife Katherine Parr have died and 15-year-old Bess travels to London to visit her Uncle Ted, unaware she is about to be thrust into a scandal involving impropriety and a murder plot.
The young Princess Elizabeth must defend herself against accusations of plotting to kill her brother, King Edward, and having an illicit love affair with her stepfather.
How does she manage to manoeuvre her way through a series of confrontational interviews that challenge her propriety and ability to scheme and plot murderous treason?
"She's playing a man's game, so this is an opportunity to watch a fascinating cat-and-mouse game play out." said director Elizabeth Ann Skelhorne, who points out the play confronts our biases about a girl and what she has the right or capability to do.
Skelhorne said the play is based on historical fact, but language and costumes have been brought forward to provide a modern take on a tumultuous time in British politics. The costumes are modern, with her sister Mary clad in biker leathers, investigators in suits, and a bit of a nod to the past, with a bodice or neckline.
"It may be historical but it certainly is a message for now," Skelhorne said. "We still don't think that girls have the ability or right to control their lives. There are so many ways women are controlled or kept in check, or bear shame at the hands of others."
Skelhorne is delighted with her cast, including Oliver Becker, who knows the playwright and acted as Henry the Eighth in two productions – a coproduction by the Belfry Theatre in Victoria and Ottawa’s GCTC Theatre. Shalya Diekert, a newcomer to Shuswap Theatre takes on the complex lead tole.
An actress as well as playwright, Hennig was nominated Best Actress in a Play for her performance in 2003’s The Danish Play in the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and won the Dora for Best Actress in a Musical in 2011’s Billy Elliot.
Although predominantly a stage actress, she also received a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 for Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, and has appeared in the films Mrs. Winterbourne and The Claim, and the television series Bomb Girls, Saving Hope and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.
As a playwright, Hennig was nominated for Outstanding New Play at the 2017 Dora Mavor Moore Awards and shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2017 Governor General's Awards for The Virgin Trial.
“Her writing is amazing, she writes as an actor for actors,” said Skelhorne, explaining why she was intrigued with The Virgin Trial. “I like the central question about a young girl taking agency over her own life.”
The play opens at Shuswap Theatre, 41 Hudson Ave. NW in Salmon Arm, on April 25 and runs to May 11. Shows take place at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Pay What You Choose on Thursday, May 8, and 1:30 p.m. on Sundays. The Virgin Trial is Shuswap Theatre’s entry into the 2025 Okanagan Zone Festival, which is being held in Salmon Arm.
For more information and to purchase tickets, go online to shuswaptheatre.com.
