Henry VIII impersonator

Transkript: Henry VIII impersonator

I’d like to start off by talking a bit about your fascination with Henry VIII. When did it begin? Is there a clear moment that you can remember?  

Yes. So my fascination with Henry VIII started when I was about eight years old and I was in year three in primary schoolGrundschuleprimary school, and we were learning about the Tudors and one of the things that we were looking at was Hans Holbein and his portraiture of Henry VIII. And in our art lesson, we were told to draw Henry VIII. And I drew a tiny little picture of Henry VIII on an A4 sheet of paper in my art book. And I thought that it was just the best drawing that there has ever, ever been in the class. A bit big-headedeingebildetbig-headed, I know! And around that time, my aunt took me to the Tower of London, because I don’t live far from the Tower; it was about a half an hour train journey. And I saw Henry’s armourRüstungarmour. I saw a lady portraying Anne Boleyn, and she was recite sth.etw. vortragenreciting the story of her downfall and her untimely deathfrühzeitiger Toduntimely death and execution. And I was just grip sb.jmdn. packen, faszinierengripped from that point. And from there, I started reading more information about Henry VIII, started watching documentaryDokumentarfilmdocumentaries from David Starkey, for example, on [British TV station] Channel 4. [Starkey is] a very angesehen, bedeutendnotable historianHistoriker(in)historian when it comes to anything about Henry VIII. He’s a phenomenal historian and, you know, really just got me so invested: get ~ in sth.von etw. beeindruckt seininvested in it. And ever since then, I’ve just dedicate: ~ one’s life to sth.sein Leben etw. widmendedicated my life to doing more research on Henry VIII, and now I portray him. 

So you go into schools and do you do school assemblySchulversammlungschool assemblies or is it more during history lessons?  

When the schools book a workshop, it’s an all-day thing, so the workshop will start at nine and then finish at three o’clock. So the children will have a really engaging, immersiveumfassendimmersive history lesson, where I will be dressed either as Henry VIII or a different historical character, depending on what the school books, and there will be various different activities, and I will then teach them about that period of history. 

How do the children usually react?

It really depends on what character I am, to be fair. So, if I’m, for example, portraying a Stone AgeSteinzeitStone Age man, when they first meet me, there’s no verbal communication. It’s just a matter of gruntGrunzengrunts, groanÄchzen, Stöhnengroans and growlBrummen, Knurrengrowls. And they find that really, really funny. And then they also find it really weird because they can’t understand me. If I’m Henry VIII, you know, it’s just that being in aweEhrfurchtawe, that amazement of seeing, you know, the king walk into their hall. And I teach them how to reverenceHochachtung erweisenreverence properly, so how to bow and curtsyknicksencurtsy and address the king. And a lot of children, you know, especially if I’m doing it for the younger children, so, year ones and twos, they believe that I am actually that person.

Do you do events for adults as well? 

Yeah, so events for adults. So I do heritage workKulturerbe-Bildungsarbeitheritage work as well. So rather than, you know, just being in schools, I go to various different historical homes and buildings across the country and bring Henry to life in these settings. And depending on what the heritage site wants, so for example, one place might ask me to give a talk on Henry VIII, so it’ll be more like a historical lectureVortraglecture rather than, you know, me in character as Henry. Another venueVeranstaltungsortvenue might want, you know, some entertainment, so we might put on a collection of performances of Tudor dances, for example. Now that it’s coming into the summer and the gardens are starting to bloomblühenbloom in most of these places, lawn games will be something that I bring to venues for children to have access to. So it really all depends on what…

With the wives as well, right?

Yeah. So I have a great network with people that I work with. Wives, for example. I’m good friends with two ladies that generally accompany me to most events who darstellen, spielenportray two of the wives. But I have got that network of people that if a venue do want all six wives, I’m able to put that forward.

Note: This interview was conductführenconducted in early summer.