Elizabeth and Essex - A One Act Play

One act play based on Queen Elizabeth I of England and young Robert Devereaux. One of the most famous and tortured romances in history - between Elizabeth, and Essex - began in 1587, when she was fifty-three and he was nineteen. Their passionate affair continued for five years, until Essex was beheaded for treason in 1601. In a fast-paced succession of brilliantly-rendered scenes, Charlene Ryan portrays Elizabeth and Essex's compelling attraction for each other, their impassioned disagreements and their mutual struggle for power, which culminated so tragically - for both of them. Alongside the doomed love affair, Ryan pins colorful portraits of the leading characters and influential figures of the time: Walter Raleigh, Robert Cecil and other members of her glittering court who fought to assert themselves in a kingdom and a country defined by Elizabeth's incomparable reign.