Mother’s Daughter

The stunning third part of Kate Hennig’s powerful Queenmaker Trilogy, retelling the stories of three Tudor queens of England, in contemporary settings.

On the death of King Edward VI, the thirty-eight-year-old princess Mary - daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon - wrests the throne from Edward’s deemed heir. As the kingdom splits along Roman Catholic and Protestant lines, Mary walks a gauntlet of squabbling ethics and politics, and is forced to make the toughest of decisions. Should she execute her opponents before it’s too late, the way her father did? Should she scramble to find a husband who can give her a rightful heir? And can she trust her mother, her sister, or even herself?

Kate Hennig’s play Mother’s Daughter examines the xenophobia, religious nationalism, and strained familial bonds that shaped a nation. It was first staged at Stratford Festival, Ontario, in 2019.