Performance History
Whether the play was ever produced in the Elizabethan/Jacobean age is not known, but it is obvious by the nature of the revisions and the mention of the actor Thomas Goodale in 3.1 that it was written for the public stage. Since that time no recorded performance of Sir Thomas More took place until a three-night student production by the Birkbeck College, University of London, in December 1922. The play was staged with more than 40 students at the King's School, Canterbury, 4–6 November 1938, with P. D. V. Strallen in the title role. The first known professional staging of the play was 22–29 June 1954 at the London Theatre Centre for the Advance Players Association. It was first performed in Elizabethan costumes and then in modern dress, with Michael Beint as More.
Sir Thomas More has been acted in whole or in part several times as a radio play, twice by BBC Third Programme (1948, 1956), by the Austrian public radio ORF in 1960, and then again by BBC Radio 3 in 1983 with Ian McKellen playing the title role. McKellen also played the role at the Nottingham Playhouse 10 June-4 July 1964, taking over from John Neville on short notice, when the latter had artistic differences with director Frank Dunlop during rehearsals.
The play has been infrequently revived since, Nigel Cooke playing More for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Sir Thomas More (play)
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