

Bring Up the Bodies (stage version)
Mike Poulton
What readers are saying
Readers generally find 'Bring Up the Bodies' to be an engaging and well-crafted sequel to 'Wolf Hall'. Many appreciate the tighter narrative and the depth of character development, particularly of Thomas Cromwell. While some feel it lacks the same magic as its predecessor, the overall reception remains overwhelmingly positive, with anticipation for the final installment in the trilogy.
THE STORY: Mike Poulton's two-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novels is a thrilling portrait of a brilliant manipulator navigating a high-stakes political landscape.
In BRING UP THE BODIES, Anne Boleyn is now queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell.
But Henry still needs a male heir, and he begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour.
Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly perilous court to satisfy Henry, defend the nation, and advance his own ambitions.
"The extraordinary enthusiasm for these books across page, stage and screen is partly due to the inherent dramatic power of the narratives…[Mantel and Poulton] bring to the familiar tale of doomed wives and religious convulsion a thrilling originality of psychology and storytelling…absolute dramatic clarity with tantalizing historical ambiguity…Mantel and Poulton, while themselves rewriting history, show the king and his spin doctor doing the same.” —The Guardian (UK). ”…opens like House of Cards and ends like Game of Thrones…Mike Poulton's adaptations keep the language accessible and the political context lucid enough for a general audience. They are also surprisingly funny, with a more broadly comic tone than Mantel's books…elegantly done…History repeats itself, first as farce, then as tragedy…masterful…highly satisfying.“ —The Hollywood Reporter. ”…a superbly tense duet…fiercely intelligent…Mantel's inspired approach, echoed by adaptor Mike Poulton, was to take the decade coverin"
— The Telegraph (UK)
Hilary Mantel on 'Bring Up the Bodies'
Bring Up The Bodies is a British adaptation play written by Mike Poulton and published by Dramatists Play Service (2016).
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