A dramatisation of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize winning novel Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies plays in two parts in the winter season of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Anne Boleyn (Lydia Leonard) is now Queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell (Ben Miles). But Henry (Nathaniel Parker) remains without a male heir, and the conflict with the Catholic Church has left England dangerously isolated as France and the Holy Roman Empire ominously manoeuvre for position.

When the King begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour, Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly dangerous court as he charms, bullies and manipulates nobility, commoners and foreign powers alike to satisfy Henry, keep the nation safe, and advance his own ambitions.

Hilary Mantel is the first author to win two Man Booker Prizes with consecutive novels. They are now adapted for the stage in two parts by Mike Poulton (for the RSC St Erkenwald, Morte D'Arthur, The Canterbury Tales).

Directed by Royal Court Associate Director Jeremy Herrin. Recent credits include This House (National Theatre) and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe).