Magic Theatre Reading: Anne By Anne Kenner
Magic Theatre
May 19th @ 7:30 p.m.Magic Theatre hosts a reading of Anne by Anne Kenner in the theater in Building D, Third Floor at Fort Mason Center For Arts and Culture. The reading happens on Monday, May 19, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
King Henry VIII’s England was no picnic for women. Anne changes all of that, re-imagining Tudor England as a comedic romp and scathing political satire, all while taking down one of history’s greatest villains. Watch Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon call bullshit on the patriarchy and beat the most powerful men in 16th-century Britain at their own game.
From the playwright, Anne Kenner:
“In 1969 when I was 11 years old, my best friend and I copped a ride to watch Anne of The Thousand Days at the Third Avenue Cinema in San Mateo, CA. Watching Anne Boleyn best the poisonously brilliant and powerful men who surrounded her in Tudor England was the most exciting, horizon-expanding experience of my young life. In the film though, as in history, the men won. As I watched the executioner swing his blade at my hero’s neck, I vowed to vindicate Anne Boleyn. Anne is my rendition of how things play out when women give themselves enough credit to grasp and exercise the upper hand.”
“‘[If times had ended] better for Anne Boleyn,’ I persuaded myself, ‘they’d have ended better for all the girls.’ So, I decided to rewrite her narrative. Anne is a play in four acts about exactly what should have happened if people in the 16th century shared my particular perspective on appropriate justice. And by four acts, I mean a really fast, really slant, idiosyncratically vernacularized rendition of how things play out when women give themselves enough credit to grasp and exercise the upper hand. Anne is a clarion call to anyone and everyone who has ever been reluctant to take their moonshot. As a re-imagined Anne Boleyn reminds us, ‘I yet own my own mind and make decisions as I will’”