Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies: (stage version) - Softcover

Mike Poulton is a playwright and translator. His work has been staged at the Donmar Warehouse, Old Vic, Almeida Theatre and for the RSC, amongst others.

Hilary Mantel is an English novelist and short-story writer, best known for her Booker Prize-winning historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

'One hesitates to use the phrase "a marriage made in heaven" in the vicinity of Henry VIII but that would be a fair way of describing this brilliant union between the RSC and Hilary Mantel ... Such is the dramatic skill of the adaptation by Mike Poulton (with whom Mantel has worked closely) ... that, if the final instalment of the trilogy had been completed and turned into a play, I would gladly have stayed up all night.' Paul Taylor, Independent 'A triumph ... gripping yet darkly funny ... a rollicking yarn that gives an eye-level idea of life at the Tudor court ... a bold, unforgettable lesson in history and politics.' The Times 'Mike Poulton has done an outstanding job ... a gripping piece of narrative theatre ... characters have a three-dimensional richness ... This is history made manifest ... These plays are about class, passion, conscience, religious freedom and the danger of living in a society where power goes unchecked ... they show that novels can sometimes be made into very good plays.' Michael Billington, Guardian 'The mother of all costume dramas: a six-hour Tudor epic ... a groaning banquet of political shenanigans and deadly intrigue ... Poulton pulls off a remarkable act.' Daily Mail 'Dark and gripping ... splendidly entertaining and at times deeply touching.' Telegraph 'Event theatre of the highest brow ... nail-bitingly tense ... Historical drama of the highest calibre.' Daily Express 'Poulton's adaptation ... triumphantly compresses almost 1,100 dense but deliciously written pages into nearly six hours of enthralling traffic on the stage.' Georgina Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Poulton's script brings the intrigues and political machinations to the stage with clarity, wit and plenty of very welcome humour ... Poulton, Herrin and Hilary Mantel have produced something quite special here. It is an intelligent, fresh and dramatic retelling of a very familiar period of history ... the writing is first class - a real gem of a script for audience and actors alike.' whatsonstage.com