PLAYWRITING
Ten-Minute Plays
Children's Theatre
The Confessor
20 males, 6 Female with doublingThis five-act play, which is in the style of a Shakespearian history play and written in iambic pentameter, covers the reign of Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king in the Wessex line of Alfred the Great. The time-frame of the play spans from the death of Edward’s predecessor to the crowning of his successor. In addition, this work covers all the constantly shifting political alliances that occurred throughout his reign. Notable characters include Malcolm Canmore and Earl Siward (who both appear in Shakespeare’s Macbeth); Earl Leofric and his famous wife, Lady Godiva; William, who later becomes the Conqueror; Harold, who William defeated at the Battle of Hastings; Emma of Normandy who was queen to two kings and mother of two kings; and the mighty Earl Godwin, chief advisor to four kings, father of one, and father-in-law to Edward. Battles, murder, intrigue, romance, piracy and a miraculous healing make up the action of the play. Edward the Confessor was canonized in 1161. This work deals mainly with the man and not the saint.
