Globe to Globe Blog: The good, the bad & the Prince Hal

Dan and Giles
were at Shakespeare’s Globe to see Compania Nacional De Teatro’s Henry IV.

DAN: Amazing smells
waft up as we cross Millennium Bridge from St Pauls. It can only be peanuts roasting gently in some kind of
chocolate. It’s a wonderful childhood sense smell. Part fairground and
part cinema. You are drawn to it. Central London is swarming with
peanut roasting vendors. Sometimes they are selling hotdogs. From…
Don’t ask. Somewhere. There’s always a mate standing close by too.
Keeping the vendor uptodate on… something. The smell is enticing, the
look of the men is not. Know the ones I mean? They are of the street, but
not. Do they have actual homes? Surely. Where do they get their
roasting carts? If this life is better here than what they left back home
what must it be like back there?

GILES: In Henry IV, heir to the throne Prince Hal has left court and
duty to go hang out with the rough and ready’s down the dark endz of
the city. The King hasn’t seen him for months and he’s pissed about it.
Good Time Hal is out on the lash with Fat Jack Falstaff and his gang of
urchins. They rob, they booze, they fight, they roast peanuts. Hals a bit
of a prick but of all Shakespeare’s characters, he’s the one young man
you most want to be. The play’s got that ‘D’you remember the night we
got completely pissed and trashed my dad’s boat?’-vibe about it.

DAN: The National Theatre of Mexico have come to show us how it’s
done.

GILES: We’ve seen Falstaff down here before. He was black then. Spoke
Swahili. Our Globe To Globe odyssey is half way through and with each
play comes more clarity and more confusion. Shakespeare’s genius is
like a flaming torch, yes it lights the cave but who the hell knows how it
actually works? We are just glad for the light.

Woman Next To Us: “How’s your Spanish?”

Giles: “Worse than my Russian. He speaks Spanish.”

Dan: “A little. I should be able to follow.”

Woman Next To Us: “We used to bring our children here all the time.
They’ve outgrown it now.”
Giles- “They’ll be back.”

DAN: Thought of the day: Music. The difference between a company that
uses music and one that does not is huge. The Mexican company had
four musicians up on the balcony. Sergio Leon would have loved it.
Because the stage is bare, no sets or curtains or spotlights it seems to
make the play flow smoother, the actor doesn’t have to worry so much
about making his ENTRANCE. The scene can change from the castle to
the forest in one line. BUT that moment of change must be clear and
bold. Music does this best. It tells us instantly- we’ve changed. Either a
character has changed or a location has changed. The Mexican NT used
music so well. Themes and melodies and rhythms all used to tell us the
story.

GILES: There was a pigeon who loved the drums. Everytime they played
she flew across from one side of the roof to the other.

DAN Next up…?

GILES: Not sure. Rapping Othello I think.

DAN We have heard the chimes at midnight G.

GILES: That we have my friend, that we have. Jesus the day that we
have seen.