Three Queens
Three Queens is one-act play about a fictional encounter between Queen Mary I, Lady Jane Grey and the future Queen Elizabeth I, as well another royal cousin - Cardinal Reginald Pole, on the night before Lady Jane Grey is due to be executed.
Plot Summary
Cardinal Pole, (cousin to the new queen Mary Tudor and Princess Elizabeth Tudor), has secretly brought the condemned Lady Jane Grey to Greenwich Palace to speak with Queen Mary, in the hopes of making Jane recant and save her life, and start Mary's reign without a killing. However, will Mary, newly crowned, find her compassion to do as Pole wants? Does Jane really want to change, and who does the Elizabeth really want to save? And just why does Cardinal Pole want to save Lady Jane Grey? One night where three women's fates will be sealed, and one night where family turns out to be deadly.
Other
Three Queens allows for the cast to work within Covid social distancing guidelines if needed.
Roland Hui, Tudor historian, interviewed Rosamund Gravelle about "exciting" Three Queens. Read his full article, which appeared in Tudor Life Magazine, here
TudorExtra article about Three Queens can be read via this link (please note that this link will take you to an outside website)
Three Queens production history can be found here
Rosamund Gravelle's writing and producing CV can be found here
Yaiza Freire-Bernat as Lady Jane Grey and Edina Hadley as Princess Elizabeth Tudor
Taken at the tech rehearsal for a performance of an extract of "Three Queens" at Queens Theatre Hornchurch's Other Stage, October 2021
Photo by Rosamund Gravelle
Magdalena Ivanov as Lady Jane Grey
Taken at Barons Court Theatre's facilitated reading of "Three Queens", June 2023
Photo by Rosamund Gravelle
Learn more about Three Queens by checking out the interviews Rosamund Gravelle has given about her play.
Rosamund talked with Natalie Lomoko about "Three Queens" on the "If It Ain't Baroque" Podcast in April 2023. The podcast epidsoe aired in April 2023 on Spotify and is available to download.
Rosamund spoke with Ian Brown on "Backstage" which was broadcast on 2nd Radio City, in March 2024 for an interview about the April 2024 production of "Three Queens" at Barons Court Theatre (24th April - 11th May 2024)
Rosamund was interviewed by Roland Hui about all things 'Three Queens' for Tudor Life Magazine - the The Tudor's Society Magazine. To read the article (shared with permission) click this link:
Rosamund talked with Natalie Lomoko about "Three Queens" on the "If It Ain't Baroque" Podcast in April 2023. The podcast epidsoe aired in April 2023 on Spotify and is available to download.
Three Queens has had a number of read-throughs; two different Scratch evening events - one at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch's Other Stage - showcasing extracts of Three Queens ; a Rehearsed Reading by Barons Court Theatre at Barons Court Theatre in October 2022 to an invited, private audience; and a facilitated workshop at Barons Court Theatre in April 2023
Some of the actors who have taken part during Three Queens read-throughs, scratch events, workshops and the Rehearsed Reading include:
Top Row (from left): Francesca Anderson; Celia Learmonth; Wendy Morgan;Eleanor Wilkenson; Aiyaz Ahmed; Alex Blackie
Middle Row (from left): Ceri Gifford; Eliza Shea; Duncan Dury: Alexander HJ Smith; Pete Picton; Mohana
Bottom Row (from left): Belinda McGuirk; Sarah Sprately; Yaiza Freire-Berat; Edina Hadley; Magdalena Ivanova
The premier of Three Queens ran from 23rd April 2024 to 11th May and was produced by Kibo Productions (the operating theatre production company of Barons Court Theatre since 2020 - ) and Rosamund Gravelle. You can read more about the original production here
Kibo Productions have produced a number of their own in-house shows at Barons Court Theatre, (along with all programming all of Barons Court Theatre's content), with a focus on inclusivity and under-represented voices especially in the LBGTQ+ community, the Ukrainian creative diaspora, and women writers.
Rosamund Gravelle was Executive Producer of Temporal Horizons Theatre (now known as Temporal Horizons Productions) between 2021 - 2022. She helped stage firstly an extract of her play Three Queens as part of Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch scratch night line up in October 2021, and Cyrano (a new adaptation by Charlie Catton) - as part of another line up of extract in Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch's Scratch night at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, in March 2022.
Rosamund Gravelle as Executive Producer of Temporal Horizons Theatre, she helped Executive Produce Faustus The Damned - A Bridged Tale which was staged at Barons Court Theatre in May 2022.
Rosamund left Temporal Horizons Productions in the summer of 2022.
As a freelance Producer, Rosamund co-produced the premiere production of Three Queens with Kibo Productions at Barons Court Theatre which ran from April 23rd to 11th May 2024.
Rosamund is also the Co-Executive Producer of a podcast called Poets Corner...Or the Let's Be Happy Podcast since June 2023, and which launched in 2024 and in which she is also a co-host; the first series is available to listen to for free via YouTube.