Henry IV Part I

Synopsis

Young Prince Hal is leading a dissolute life, hanging around bars with his notorious friend Falstaff and other disreputable characters. Meanwhile King Henry IV, who has usurped the throne, is facing growing opposition, which becomes open rebellion led by the courageous young Hotspur. Prince Hal casts off his wanton ways and joins his father's side as the King meets the rebellion in a dramatic battle.

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Janet Polson - 31 January 2008:

These RSC productions of the Henry IV plays, whilst themselves very fine, also illustrate the fact that their messages about the legitimacy of rule and the qualities of kingship, and the civil strife that can result when these things are called into question, are even more powerful when the plays form part of a complete cycle of Shakespeare's main history plays. The staging of both parts (directed by Michael Boyd and Richard Twyman respectively) is superb and encompasses the whole auditorium, greatly increasing our sense of involvement – something which, when I saw the productions in the morning and afternoon (with Henry V to come in the evening) was already more intense than normal because a large number of the spectators were staying all day. A certain amount of audience participation in Part One, and a comical interlude performed by Matt Costain before the start of Part Two, also helped to ensure that our feelings of actually taking part in the whole event were maintained. As elsewhere in the cycle, settings are simple - the inn at Eastcheap is represented by a swathe of red curtain and under-stage "rooms" and Shallow's orchard by a string of bunting and folding stools, whilst Tom Piper's rusty tower maintains an ominous presence throughout – but this does not prevent us realising that the upheavals in Henry's kingdom affect all levels of society and are not confined to fighting between the nobility on both sides. And there are excellent performances from the whole ensemble. David Warner's world-weary Falstaff is nothing less than a revelation, and Eastcheap is also enlivened by the presence of Maureen Beattie's Glaswegian Mistress Quickly and Julius D'Silva's quiffed Bardolph. Geoffrey Freshwater's voluble Shallow, delighting in reminiscing about the time when he and Falstaff were rogues together, and Sandy Neilson's drunken Silence, using superb comic timing to insert his own lines into the conversation with maximum effect, are the finest I have seen. And the entire squad of Falstaff's ragged recruits live up to their names – none more so than Antony Shuster's Shadow, who is so frightened of everything, including his own, that he collapses to the stage in a faint at the slightest provocation. For me Geoffrey Streatfeild's Hal convincingly manages the transition from the heir sowing his wild oats while he may to the king ready to assume his regal responsibilities, his apparently unfeeling rejection of Falstaff mitigated by the fact that it clearly comes as no real surprise to Falstaff himself. And Clive Wood is a wonderful Henry who, throughout his struggles to end the rebellion and his decline into illness, is tormented not only by his conscience over the way he gained the throne and the murder of Richard but also by his anxiety about Hal and who, despite their apparent reconciliation, seemingly goes to his death with his doubts about his son's ability to rule not entirely alleviated – a fact which, of course, only increases our sense of anticipation about the next play in the sequence, Henry V! ...

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