Cranmer Commemoration

11.00  Choral Matins
           Preacher: The Rt Revd Gavin Collins, Bishop of Dorchester
           followed by procession to the Martyrs’ Memorials

12.45  Lunch (pre-booked, see link below)

14.00  Performance: ‘The Trial of Thomas Cranmer’ by Anne Ridler
           Directed and produced by Professor Elisabeth Dutton

The Trial of Thomas Cranmer

This year, we will mark the 470th anniversary of the execution of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer with the revival of a play. The Trial of Thomas Cranmer was written by poet and playwright Anne Ridler, who worshipped at the University Church, for performances in 1966.

The BBC broadcast a recording of the play, which starred Frank Windsor, later of Z Cars and Softly Softly TV dramas, as Cranmer. Other actors included Derek Hart as the Witness, and Elizabeth Ogston (wife of Oxford academic Sandy Ogston, who became head of Trinity College), who played Margaret Cranmer. The original play had one performance in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, which was the site of Cranmer’s Trial.

The revival will be performed in the church on the afternoon of 21st March. It is directed by Professor Elisabeth Dutton, a member of the Department of English at the University of Fribourg and head of Early Drama for the Oxford Project, which examines plays written and performed in the Oxford Colleges between 1485 and 1642.

Tickets for lunch, as well as the script-in-hand, non-costume production are available now from the Prayer Book Society: https://www.pbs.org.uk/.