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Royal Shakespeare Company
HENRY IV Parts I and II
Geoffrey Streatfield as Prince Henry Photo by Ellie Kurttz Copyright RSC
by William Shakespeare
Directors: Michael Boyd (Part I) Richard Twyman (Part II)
Associate Directors: Richard Twyman (Part I) Michael Boyd (Part II)
The Roundhouse Part I - 3 April - 23 May. 2008
Ibs
A review by Barry Grantham for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Part I
Of course, the production is not perfect; Shakespearean performances never are and I doubt they ever can be. Indeed with the possible exception of Hamlet, Shakespeare never produced a perfect play – we don’t want perfection – we leave that to the French Classicists - we want life and life is far from perfect. But there was much to admire and rejoice in. Memorable acting – and long will I remember this fat knight, superimposed on the tall but spare frame of David Warner – how did he invest life into every ounce of such voluminous padding, to give us this portrait with which surely the bard himself would have been mightily chuffed? Well might we understand how young Hal fell under his spell, for we too loved the man, not in spite of his faults but because of them. Oh, how we gloried in his parody of King Henry, seated in an old comfy chair and with a cushion perched on his head and how might we learn of comic timing from Mr Warner’s relaxed delivery. We first see him sharing a bed with young Hal, and Geoffrey Streatfeild proves a worthy partner, their patter coming fast and slick as is required of all good double acts. Prince Hal is one of those difficult ‘transformation’ roles, like Scrooge (mean-to-generous), Giselle (innocent-to-mad-to ghostly Wili). And here, from wastrel-to-able ruler – Mr Streatfeild, by face and figure, is perhaps most believable in this first realization, his excess of youthful energies and rebel spirit are the stuff of adolescence and quite believable. That he dons the robes of state with less ease I think is rather touching; thus the ‘rejection scene’ rings true; a thing he knows he must, but is finding it hard, to do.
Julius D'Silva (Bardolph), Geoffrey Freshwater (Justice Shallow), David Warner (Sir John Falstaff) and Wela Frasier (Falstaff's Page) Photo by Ellie Kurttz Copyright RSC
Of the other two pivotal roles, Clive Wood is a solid King Henry. That sounds like faint praise – but that is not meant. The play needs him to be solid, as the country needed a solid king. He looked like a man who knew danger, in war and from those around him, but under this there is a secret guilt – for which there must be atonement.
The team playing is good and the direction full of pace with flashes of inspiration, the main stylized battle thrilling, the costumes and the set excellent. Two small critical points; This is not the type of production in which one looks for realism, but there are a few things that do stretch the suspension of disbelief too far and one of these is when an actor is asked to mourn over a body that is observably still breathing heavily – in this case Prince Hal over the recently slaughtered Hotspur. I speak about this with some authority having been voted best corpse in the Henry series (BBC Shakespeare Project) There is technique here. If you died on your back you must take the air into the back intercostal muscles (a trick employed by male dancers after a hard variation) and if – as in this case - you are face down, you need to make short breath with the diaphragm. And secondly some of the actors, especially the younger ones, seem to think that it is necessary to punctuate the text with hand and/or head movements in the same rhythm as the words. In one case it was so bad that every single syllable was accompanied by a downward stroke of either right, or left or both hands, through an entire lengthy speech.
Part II I returned after the lunch break eager to return to the feast, but after some twenty minutes I began to feel satiated. Three possibilities occurred to me; either the company, or myself, or even Mr Shakespeare had grown tired – this really didn’t seem so good – a really heavy handed attempt at comedy in the Boars Head was becoming the bore’s head. It is a sad fact that in a great company like the RSC only about 15 percent are female and sadder still to say that the small number in the cast of Henry IV Parts I & II were distinctly less impressive than their male counterparts. Nice to know that Maureen Beattie (Mistress Quickly) is carrying on the family tradition. I worked with, and greatly admired her father, but I couldn’t quite come to terms with a Scottish accent in Eastcheap
Wela Frasier (Peto), Maureen Beattie (Mistress Quickly) and Geoffrey Streatfield (Prince Henry) Photo by Ellie Kurttz Copyright RSC
At last we came to the ‘trying the Crown for size’ scene - a tour de force from Clive Wood and Geoffrey Streatfeild and suddenly the magic returned. There was some nice comedy from Shallow (Geoffrey Freshwater) and Silence (Sandy Neilson) and of course Falstaff, and the production held us in its power to the end and all, well almost all, was forgiven.
Clive Wood (Henry IV) and Geoffrey Streatfield (Prince Henry) Photo by Ellie Kurttz Copyright RSC
Unstinted praise for the venue – one of the finest in the capital - its management and for the courtesy and helpfulness of its staff.
Set: Tom Piper 0844 482 2008 www.roundhouse.org.uk The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8EH Tickets: £5 - £30 Part I: 28 Apr 2008 - 19:30, Part II: 29 Apr 2008 - 19:30,
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