Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
6<br />
Photos: Crown Copyright.<br />
THE HOUSEHOLD DIVISION BEATING RETREAT<br />
The Household Division Beating Retreat, taking place this<br />
year on 6 & 7 June, is a traditional musical extravaganza<br />
which showcases the very best of British military music,<br />
ceremonial and pageantry in the heart of London.<br />
THE LAST DAYS OF ANNE BOLEYN:<br />
NEW PLAY AT TOWER OF LONDON<br />
The final days of one of the Tower of<br />
London’s most infamous prisoners,<br />
Anne Boleyn, will be brought to life in a<br />
new play, to run throughout the summer<br />
season at the Tower of London.<br />
The performance, written and directed<br />
by Michael Fentiman, will follow the last<br />
17 days of Anne’s life. After one of the<br />
most controversial courtships in history,<br />
during the course of which Henry VIII<br />
famously broke with the Catholic Church<br />
to marry her and conceive an heir, she<br />
spent the night at the Tower of London<br />
before her coronation in 1533. She<br />
returned to the Tower in 1536, accused<br />
of adultery and treason. The Last Days of<br />
Anne Boleyn explores her tragic final<br />
days at the famous fortress, from her<br />
imprisonment and interrogation, through<br />
to her trial and execution.<br />
Set on the historic Horse Guards<br />
Parade, against the magnificent<br />
backdrop of St James’s Park, The<br />
Massed Bands of The Foot Guards will<br />
perform a programme of rousing military<br />
and contemporary music, supported by<br />
The Mounted Band of the Household<br />
Cavalry, The Pipes and Drums of The<br />
Scots Guards, The Drums and Pipes of<br />
the Irish Guards, the Corp of Drums of<br />
the Coldstream and Irish Guards, the<br />
Musical Ride of the Household Cavalry<br />
and the Royal Choral Society.<br />
The Band and Pipes of the United<br />
Arab Emirates and The United States<br />
Army Europe Band and Chorus will join<br />
this annual event as guest performers.<br />
This year’s theme of co-operation is<br />
titled ‘Alliance of the Free’, with over six<br />
hundred musicians taking part.<br />
Military Beating Retreat concerts have<br />
a long tradition dating back to the 1690s.<br />
Originally the beating of the drum was<br />
used to order troops to break off fighting<br />
and withdraw to the safety of camp as<br />
darkness fell, later it signalled the closing<br />
of the camp gates at the end of the day<br />
and called troops back to base for the night.<br />
The Household Division Beating Retreat<br />
showcases the very best of military music,<br />
ceremonial and pageantry in the heart of<br />
London. Stirring music, precision drill,<br />
horsemanship, cannon fire, lights and<br />
fireworks will combine in an unforgettable<br />
evening of music, celebrating British Army<br />
Endeavour. tickets.householddivision.org.uk<br />
Anne Boleyn.<br />
The performance is staged on the site<br />
of the lost Tudor Palace at the Tower,<br />
where Anne spent her last 17 days. It<br />
uses contemporary sources – including<br />
her own words from letters to her<br />
husband, Henry VIII and her final speech<br />
on the scaffold – to paint an intimate<br />
and moving picture of this tragic history,<br />
in the place where it happened. This<br />
theatrical spectacle draws on the music,<br />
ritual and liturgy of Henry VIII’s Tudor<br />
Court for inspiration.<br />
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e