The Mirror and the Light Tickets

By: Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles
Songs by: Stephen Warbeck
Director: Jeremy Herrin
Cast list: Ben Miles, Nathaniel Parker, Nicholas Boulton, Matt Pidgeon, Giles Taylor, Rosanna Adams, Paul Adeyefa, Melissa Allan, Aurora Burghart, Ian Drysdale, Jo Herbert, Terique Jarrett, Jordan Kouamé, Geoffrey Lumb, Olivia Marcus, Umi Myers, Liam Smith, Tony Turner, Leo Wan, Nicholas Woodeson, Samuel Awoyo, Andrew Hodges, Niamh James and Nicholas Tizzard.
Design: Christopher Oram
Lighting: Jessica Hung Han Yun
Sound: Nick Powell

There’s no drama quite like royal drama. The stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s thrilling Tudor tale concludes with The Mirror and the Light, which premieres in the West End this autumn. Will Henry VIII’s brilliant advisor Thomas Cromwell, who clawed his way to the top, manage to maintain his position — or will his enemies tear him down? Find out by booking The Mirror and the Light tickets today.

This Royal Shakespeare Company production follows their theatrical version of the first two books in Mantel’s bestselling trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. The stage adaptation of the combined first two books opened at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2014, and subsequently had successful runs in the West End and on Broadway. Mantel’s series was also adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015, starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance as Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII, and The Crown’s Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn.

On stage, Ben Miles reprises the role of Thomas Cromwell, as does Nathaniel Parker as Henry VIII. Jeremy Herrin, who helmed the previous RSC production, directs The Mirror and the Light’s West End run, and designer Christopher Oram is back to bring the Tudor court to life. Mantel’s account of the court’s rivalries, scheming and in-fighting is tailor-made for drama, and this third part, which sees Henry VIII hoping that Jane Seymour will provide his longed-for male heir, while Cromwell becomes more vulnerable, promises to be particularly exciting.

Don’t miss out on The Mirror and the Light play at the Gielgud Theatre; whether or not you read the book, this is a must-see production. Plan your trip and get booking — The Mirror and the Light tickets are now available.

What to Watch For

• Hilary Mantel twice won the Man Booker Prize for her trilogy (for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies) — the first author to win with consecutive novels — and she was longlisted for The Mirror and the Light. Mantel was also made a Dame in 2014 for services to literature.
• Although the story is rooted in the past, actor Ben Miles, who plays Cromwell, thinks he is hugely sympathetic as “the original working-class hero”: he’s a self-made man who transcends his humble origins as a blacksmith’s son and makes it all the way to the top. Miles is co-adapting this concluding production with Mantel.
• Jeremy Herrin, who is the artistic director of Headlong Theatre, has helmed several landmark plays in recent years, including Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things, Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, James Graham’s This House and Labour of Love, and Tony Kushner’s The Visit.
• Composer Stephen Warbeck has had a fascinatingly varied career. He composed the scores for movies Shakespeare in Love (which won him an Oscar), Billy Elliot, and Mrs Brown, has put music to numerous National Theatre and West End productions, and was Bafta nominated for TV crime drama Prime Suspect, starring Dame Helen Mirren. He recently directed his first feature film, The Man in the Hat.
• The Olivier and Tony Award-winning designer Christopher Oram has spoken about the challenges of dressing a show on this scale. The Wolf Hall production required around 300 costume pieces, with eight just for Henry VIII, with four layers each. Cromwell alone escapes these numerous costume changes, since he doesn’t leave the stage.