The Globe has had a sticky time with new writing recently. By far the best offering was Howard Brenton’s In Extremis (2006), so it’s good to see this playwright return with a pithy look at the second wife of Henry VIII, Shakespeare’s version of whom is also in this season’s repertoire.

Brenton’s novel, though occasionally distorting, portrays Anne (Miranda Raison) as sassy and sexy but also as a woman of strong religious conviction and an ardent supporter of the nascent Protestant faith.

It was, of course, the rejection of Catholicism that would enable Henry (Foyle’s War favourite Anthony Howell) to divorce Catherine of Aragon, leading to decades of religious unrest.

To underline this, Brenton interpolates scenes of James I (James Garnon), whose discovery of Anne’s Bible leads to a lengthy meditation on how religious disquiet bedevils this later reign.

The James scenes, intended to ease us into differing historical perspectives on Anne, are overextended.

It’s far better when Anne and Henry are about, as Raison compellingly suggests a woman prepared to face down a court of politicking men, and Howell, a lithe and handsome Henry, has a bounce and swagger that explain all those wives, as well as his frustration with the Roman church.

Brenton’s earthy script has some snappy lines, and director John Dove manages to coax appealing shading from the supporting cast. If only Anne had produced a male heir, there would never have been a James for us, or Brenton, to bother with.

In rep until August 21. Information: 020 7401 9919, shakespeares-globe.org