10 – 12 November

Raleigh had what a tabloid newspaper might refer to as a chequered history. He remains a romantic, swashbuckling hero of English history who fell in and out of favour with the ruler of the day at a time when that ruler had the power of life and death over their subjects.

Andrew Margerison, writer and performer, manages to get through the whole hour and a bit without going on about potatoes or tobacco, instead taking as his cue the political shenanigans that swirled around the Tudor and Jacobean courts. As a salutary reminder of the dangers of men with ultimate power to bend the law and truth to their own ends on a whim we need no winks or nudges to suggest contemporary targets. Whatever flaws there were in the character of Sir Walter Raleigh, Mr Margerison gives us a picture of a man more sinned against than sinning, not a hero with feet of clay, but an outstanding product and victim of his times.

For an actor in a one man show there is no hiding place as far as characterisation goes, there are no interactions to give any clue to personality, it all has to come from within. Mr Margerison is well up to the task; his Raleigh is a bluff West Country man with enough vanity to cut a decent figure at court and bright intelligence that can navigate the politics of court as well as the Indies.

Now in the Tower awaiting trial for treason, supposedly for complicity in a Spanish Plot, Raleigh takes his audience back over his London life by way of laying out his defence. The audience, like the guests collared by the Ancient Mariner, finds itself bewitched by his flashing eyes and sweeping gestures. His whole body seems to jerk as he pounces on some new idea or memory. The latter includes an escapade in the mouth of the Orinoco and his disappointment at being given charge of the land rather than sea defenses against the Armada – narrated with pithy enthusiasm. The loss of his son in action is the source of great sorrow and anger at events that should have been avoided.

The bare set, save a table, chair and trunk, benefits from the rich costume which helps to draw us into the period feel of the show. Movement is sadly limited to the, ‘sits down, gets up, walks around’, style of monologue which does tend to weary an audience and test its powers of attention. Notwithstanding, Andrew Margerison keeps us engaged right up to the moment of blackout on the executioner’s block.

★★★★☆ Graham Wyles, 11 November 2025

Photography credit: Ben Guest