The Anastasia Files at Theatre Royal

Karen Neville

Windsor theatre welcomes a new twist on one of history’s greatest mysteries

Jenny Seagrove and Simon Shepherd will lead the cast in Theatre Royal Windsor’s forthcoming production of The Anastasia Files opening at the Theatre Royal Windsor on May 21st.

Jenny Seagrove, best known for her roles in A Woman of Substance, Local Hero and Judge John Deed, will reprise the role of Mrs Manahan, whilst Simon Shepherd (Peak Practice) will take on the role of the Inspector, investigating the claims that Manahan is indeed the Grand Duchess Anastasia and heir to the Romanov fortune. 

Jenny and Simon previously performed together at Theatre Royal Windsor last year in Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter. The cast is completed with Ashley D Gayle and Rosie Thomson.

The Anastasis Files is a new twist on one of history’s greatest mysteries…

July, 1918. Tsar Nicholas II and his family are brutally executed by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg. Two years later in Berlin, a woman is pulled from a canal after a failed attempt to take her own life and is placed in an institutional facility.

As doctors and police puzzle over her identity, she slowly begins to reveal details about her past that bring about the suspicion that she may in fact be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the heir to the Romanov fortune.

Inspired by the true story of Anne Manahan, whose 30-year battle for recognition as the last surviving Romanov was one of the most popular historical mysteries of the 20th century.

Memory, fact and fiction intertwine in this thrilling and moving play that will keep you guessing until the curtain falls.

The Romanov’s connection to Windsor

Shortly before his father’s death, the future Tsar Nicholas II visited Queen Victoria in the summer of 1894 accompanied by his fiancée Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, a favourite grandchild of Queen Victoria and the future Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. During these halcyon days before they could ever imagine their tragic downfall or that of their future children, the couple stayed just opposite the Theatre at Windsor Castle.

Picture caption: Photography Credit: Simon Vail, The Anastasia File (2019)