As you walk into the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, you’ll
immediately be struck by the large wooden crucifix hanging above the bare, dimly-lit
wooden stage. It’s a strong image, both
on a physical level and a metaphorical one when placed in the wider context of
the play; Henry Bolingbroke is now king and Richard II is dead. Henry, wracked
with guilt, wishes to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but a political
uprising helmed by Richard’s heir Mortimer and the Percy family means that he
is forced to delay this trip and risk incurring the wrath of God. Meanwhile,
his son, Prince Hal, played by Alex Hassell, is refusing to accept his
responsibility of prince and instead spends his time with Sir John Falstaff –
an incredible performance by Bard veteran Anthony Sher – in the taverns of
Eastcheap generally being badly behaved.
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| Boys behaving badly |
The play is easily one of Shakespeare’s best. I was
hugely disappointed with Richard II last year, but I found the seamless
juxtaposition of family drama and political thriller taut and gripping. The
narrative is told from the perspective of various politically and socially
aligned groups. It’s almost like Game of Thrones: Live, and both sides are
determined to be the victor.
Jasper Britton is fantastic as a guilt-wracked
Henry. This is a man fully aware of the religious implications of his actions,
and someone determined to avoid a repeat of the previous King’s disastrous
reign. He is further aided by Alex Hassell as a leather-clad, sex-bomb. We first
see him under the covers with two women, and as they leave he cops a feel of
one of them and coolly chucks the other a pouch of coins. Not only is Hal in
denial of his future role as king, he seems to be completely unaware.
When we first see Anthony Sher’s Falstaff, he is
passed out in an alcohol-induced stupor. When he awakens, he treats Hal with a
sense of paternal caring, but soon, his darker nature starts to appear. He
treats Paula Dionisotti’s Mistress Quickly with a misogynistic bluntness, and
he even sinks to pillaging the corpses of his fallen allies in the Shrewsbury
battle, gleefully plucking a ring from a fleshly slain corpse. This is a man
used to manipulating the world for his own gain. He even calls the men he is
leading into battle "food
for powder, they'll fill a pit as well as better". Prince Hal is
horrified, and it is from this moment that we know that this friendship is
quickly approaching an inevitable demise.
That’s the best thing about this production: the sense of change. Falstaff
is an old-school conman, a swindler, and the sadness in his eyes knows that
pretty soon, there won’t be a place in the world for people like him. Mistress
Quickly presides over her tavern with a sense of world-weariness, and she seems
to be constantly asking herself the immortal question: how long left?
The rest of the cast are strong too, especially
Trevor White’s relentlessly unhinged Hotspur. He’d rather be in bed with his
wife than acting like a husband, and is blinded by rage towards Henry.
The problem with the production is that it feels
very safe. Ivo Van Hove this isn’t. It’s a standard, risk-free production of a
Shakespeare play, and Greg Doran needs to be careful or else his formula of
purist, traditional dress productions will quickly grow thin.
Next year, Doran will presumably direct Henry V. I
can’t wait. This is a triumphant production of one of Shakespeare’s greatest
plays. Simply unmissable.
8/10
