A Man for All Seasons, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

It's easy to stay alive. Just sell your soul

Disagree with the people who run the country these days and your head will probably still stay firmly attached to your neck. That wasn't so in the time of Henry VIII, as Sir Thomas More found to his cost. But playwright Robert Bolt doesn't want his audience to get too smug about our supposedly more civilised era. At one point, his cheeky chappy Everyman character, the Common Man, played in this revival by Tony Bell, says, "We are dealing with an age less fastidious than our own. Imprisonment without trial, and even examination under torture, were common practice." Bell delivers those lines slowly and with heavy emphasis. As well, given recent events, he might.

Bolt's play - which won a sheaf of awards when it was first staged with Paul Scofield in the lead in 1960, and even more awards when it was made into a film with Scofield in 1966 - has been somewhat neglected in more recent times. Its latest outing at the Haymarket (produced by Bill Kenwright, directed by Michael Rudman) must please actor Martin Shaw, who has reportedly wanted to play More - the man who goes to the block because he refuses to compromise his principles - for some time. In many ways, it's a timely return. In 1960, the critic Kenneth Tynan drew a parallel between the play and those who were made to appear before the Un-American Activites Committee under McCarthy. Nowadays there's still no shortage of leaders around who, like Henry VIII, are willing to convince themselves that the course of action that most suits their interests (in his case, drop the Pope so he can drop the wife) is also morally right. And who follow that up by deciding that those who aren't with them are against them (hmmm, sounds faintly familiar).

So far, so right on. But does all of this make for an enjoyable evening at the Haymarket? During the first act, in which we see More rise in the world until he becomes Chancellor, I felt a few twinges of doubt. The production looks right - the dark wooden set is simple but effective, and the costumes, all rich chocolate and rose velvets and silks, are very handsome. But the play does come across as slightly stodgy and old-fashioned, mainly because of the kind of writer Bolt was: though he could do cracking dialogue, and there's plenty of that in A Man For All Seasons, he could also, at times, be wordy and elaborate. Moreover, Shaw - a fine actor with strong stage presence - initially seemed a little low-key, and I'll admit I found myself thinking: "Could he ever be as good as Paul Scofield?" These reservations, though, had largely been dispelled by the end of the second and final act, by which time the play had come into its own. Despite the fact that we know the ending, it is still moving to watch More's descent through poverty, imprisonment and death, and I revised my earlier opinion: Shaw makes a splendidly scruffy and believable Sir Thomas, with exactly the right mix of integrity, wit and gravitas. He wins our sympathy throughout - not an easy job, since the suffering he inflicts on his family make his stubborn adherence to principle a little harder to understand than it otherwise would be.

As for the rest of the cast, Daniel Flynn, playing Henry VIII - who's only in the one scene in the first act and has to make a strong impression from that alone - veered convincingly from forced efforts to be convivial to bursts of suppressed rage, but could possibly have suggested more underlying menace and greater confidence in his grandeur. Clive Carter as hatchet man Thomas Cromwell had the right cynicism but seemed a touch too mild-mannered to fit More's taunt: "You threaten like a dockside bully." The throaty and pugnacious Alison Fiske, though, is well cast as More's fierce, uneducated wife Alice, as is Gregory Fox-Murphy as the seedy but vulnerable Sir Richard Rich, willing to sell his soul to advance in the world.

Perhaps the most intriguing figure in the play is the Common Man, a likeable fellow who performs several "roles" (an affable and witty performance from Bell). The Common Man has the last word, addressing the audience: "It isn't difficult to keep alive, friends. Just don't make trouble, or, if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that's expected." But his own journey through the play isn't really that easy. In fact, despite his wish to lie low, he's compromised from the start: as More's steward, he takes bribes; then he's made foreman of More's jury; finally, he's forced, reluctantly, to be More's executioner. He wants to remain on the sidelines, but can't. The same can be said of More, who makes the mistake of thinking that if he maintains silence, he will be seen as neutral and thus harmless, and will be left alone. But when the powers that be start inventing new laws that redefine the meaning of "trouble", it can be hard to stay out of it. As far as that goes, A Man for All Seasons is, unmistakeably, a play for these times.

To 1 April 2006, 0870 901 3356

cathy.pryor@independent.co.uk