Anonymous (2011)
In modern-day New York, Derek Jacobi arrives at a theatre where he delivers a monologue questioning the lack of manuscript writings of William Shakespeare, despite the undeniable fact that he is the most performed playwright of all time. Ben Jonson is preparing to enter the stage. The narrator offers to take the viewers into a different story behind the origin of Shakespeare’s plays: “one of quills and swords, of power and betrayal, of a stage conquered and a throne lost.” Jumping to Elizabethan London, Ben Jonson is running through the streets carrying a parcel and being pursued by soldiers. He enters the theatre called The Rose and hides the manuscripts he carries as the soldiers set fire to the theatre. Ben is detained at the Tower of London to face the questioning of puritanical Robert Cecil. The writings by Edward de Vere that Robert Cecil thought Ben had are not found on him.
In a flashback of five years, an adult Edward lives, disgraced and banished from court, in the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The queen is old and in failing health, but, as she has remained unmarried, lacks an heir. The elderly Lord William Cecil, the Queen’s primary adviser, and his son Robert manage the kingdom’s affairs. A growing group of malcontent nobles gather at court, led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who is widely believed to be Elizabeth’s bastard son. The Cecils have secretly been planning to solve the succession crisis by offering the crown to Elizabeth’s cousin, King James VI of Scotland; the idea of a foreign king inheriting the crown of the Tudors angers enough nobles that they begin to muster support for Essex to claim the throne when Elizabeth dies.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Rhys IfansEarl of Oxford  Jamie Campbell BowerYoung Earl of Oxford  Edward HoggRobert Cecil  Vanessa RedgraveQueen Elizabeth I  Joely RichardsonYoung Queen Elizabeth I  Sebastian ArmestoBen Jonson  Rafe SpallWilliam Shakespeare  David ThewlisWilliam Cecil  Xavier SamuelEarl of Southampton  Sam ReidEarl of Essex  Trystan GravelleChristopher Marlowe  Paolo De VitaFrancesco  Robert EmmsThomas Dekker  Derek JacobiNarrator |
In modern-day New York, Derek Jacobi arrives at a theatre where he delivers a monologue questioning the lack of manuscript writings of William Shakespeare, despite the undeniable fact that he is the most performed playwright of all time. Ben Jonson is preparing to enter the stage. The narrator offers to take the viewers into a different story behind the origin of Shakespeare’s plays: “one of quills and swords, of power and betrayal, of a stage conquered and a throne lost.” Jumping to Elizabethan London, Ben Jonson is running through the streets carrying a parcel and being pursued by soldiers. He enters the theatre called The Rose and hides the manuscripts he carries as the soldiers set fire to the theatre. Ben is detained at the Tower of London to face the questioning of puritanical Robert Cecil. The writings by Edward de Vere that Robert Cecil thought Ben had are not found on him.
In a flashback of five years, an adult Edward lives, disgraced and banished from court, in the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The queen is old and in failing health, but, as she has remained unmarried, lacks an heir. The elderly Lord William Cecil, the Queen’s primary adviser, and his son Robert manage the kingdom’s affairs. A growing group of malcontent nobles gather at court, led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who is widely believed to be Elizabeth’s bastard son. The Cecils have secretly been planning to solve the succession crisis by offering the crown to Elizabeth’s cousin, King James VI of Scotland; the idea of a foreign king inheriting the crown of the Tudors angers enough nobles that they begin to muster support for Essex to claim the throne when Elizabeth dies.
