Bloodline by Linda Wilkinson at the Brockley Jack Theatre

Women in Theatre & Evcol Entertainment presents Bloodline, by Linda Wilkinson, at the Brockley Jack Theatre, a fringe venue in south London, from 9 Nov to 4 Dec 2010.

Starring Louise Dumayne (Bess of Hardwick), Jane Murphy (Mary Queen of Scots), Alistair Scott (George Talbot), Richard Warrick (Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester).

Directed by Simon James Collier, designed by David Shields, lighting by Ciaran Cunningham, sound by Matt Hall, costumes by Christina Pomeroy & David Shields.

Set during the turbulent years of the Wars of Religion, in which thousands were slaughtered, Bloodline looks at how the future of England relied on just two people, whose actions shaped Europe for generations to come.

For fifteen years Bess of Hardwick and her husband George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, were the custodians of Mary Stuart, who was next in line to the English throne. Their custody of Mary bankrupted George, destroyed their marriage and sent him mad. It would have been so easy for it to have been otherwise. Yet these most unlikely of heroes, kept Mary secure, thus ensuring that England was not driven apart by the religious hatred unleashed elsewhere in Europe where massacre and the Inquisition left wounds that fester to this day.