ROYAL BASTARDS is the story of the iconic Tudor Queen, Elizabeth 1 of England and Ireland, told through Music, Verse and Dance by a solo female actor,

a chorus of contemporary dancers and a nonet of musicians.

 

Elizabeth was barely three years of age when her father, King Henry VIII, ordered the execution of her mother, Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry’s wife, by beheading at the dreaded Tower of London.

 

Henry had accused his wife of having an adulterous affair with a handsome, young guitar player.

 

Young Elizabeth vowed to avenge her mother’s death and, encouraged by her spinster Welsh nanny, ensured that no man would ever again determine her fate.

 

Written and Composed by

Emmy Award-winning composer

Michael J Lewis

 

Additional contributors

Elizabeth Tudor, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dafydd ap Gwilym,

John Donne, Francis, Duke of Anjou,

William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Pope Pius V.

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Listen to the Armada Sequence

 

An abridged Spanish Armada scene narrated, on behalf of Elizabeth Tudor, by composer Michael J Lewis.

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“What a wife she would make if only we could marry.

What children we would have, they would rule the world”.

 

Pope Pius V referring to Elizabeth.