ELIZABETH

Having endured years of exile after the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I ascended to the throne of England in 1558. Her older half-sister, Mary, and Mary’s Catholic husband had left the country in religious turmoil and financial disaster. Cool, shrewd, intelligent Elizabeth rebuilt the empire. Sara Sherborne’s performance of this remarkable biography skillfully blends the drama and pageantry of world affairs and royalty with the delicacy and vulnerability of a very young woman responsible for a mighty kingdom. Her Elizabeth can be icy and decisive one moment, overcome by emotion the next. This balance brings life to the history, and to the monarch. Sherborne’s portrayals of other characters in Elizabeth’s court are similarly credible, even in the process of their aging throughout the thirty-plus years of the story. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]