Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
✭✭✭✩✩
by William Shakespeare, directed by Scott Wentworth
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
Part 1: June 1-September 29, 2001;
Part 2: June 27-September 29, 2001
"Parts 1 and 2 Together Again After 22 Years"
The fact that this year the Stratford Festival is presenting both parts of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" with Douglas Campbell, one of North America's greatest Falstaffs, is all the reason you need to see them. Although "Henry IV, Part 1" has had four previous production at Stratford (the last in 1984), only twice before, in 1965 and 1979, has the Festival staged its partner "Henry IV, Part 2". The next largest Shakespeare festival in North America regularly works its way through the Bard's canon including the 10 history plays in the First Folio. But Stratford has laboured under the misconception that they are not "box office". This year both parts of "Henry IV" were virtually sold out before they opened. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 22 years to see them again.
"Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2" are the middle two plays of Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy of history plays beginning with "Richard II" and ending with "Henry V". In them Shakespeare explores the origins of civil war in England and the Hundred Years War with France which was the subject of his First Tetralogy, "Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 & 3" and "Richard III". Shakespeare's questions in the Second Tetralogy are "How did things go so wrong?" and "What was life like in an England heading for a moment of glory followed by disaster?"
In "Henry IV, Part 1" we see in the title character someone still longing to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for having wrested the crown from Richard II making Henry the first English king to break the royal line of descent. He is faced with two types of rebellion. On the political side are the supporters of Mortimer, who would have been next in line at Richard's death, and others alienated by the usurping king. On the personal side is the Crown Prince, Prince Hal, who rather than helping his father, spends his time in taverns and brothels accompanied by a famed "misleader of youth", Falstaff. Due to the success of the rebels, especially of, Hal's contemporary Hotspur, Hal finally proves his worth in battle to his father.
Three main characters and a host of minor ones continue from one play to the next. Although named for Henry IV, the figure who towers over both parts is Falstaff, played magnificently by Douglas Campbell. Falstaff is often cited as the greatest character Shakespeare ever created since he encompasses all the opposites that make up human experience--good and evil, love and lust, truth and falsehood, comedy and tragedy--a man intent upon life and pleasure at all costs yet constant in his fatherly love for Hal. It may seem impossible to play a figure who embodies all the world has to offer and is still a realistic character, but Douglas Campbell does it with ease, his timing, gesture and delivery so perfect that you cannot imagine anyone else in this role. Falstaff is mainly the butt of ridicule in Part 2, but in Part 2 it is his turn to ridicule the young and old who have accepted a life less large. Hal's rejection of him at the end of Part 2 shocks both him and us.
It should be no surprise that none of the other actors can match Douglas Campbell's performance. Benedict Campbell as Henry IV has virtually no grasp of the complexities of his character. In Part 1 he is all poise and efficiency but in Part 2 (continuing the story immediately from where Part 1 left it) he is suddenly at death's door. The text clearly states that Henry reign was never free from care and that it is his guilt over having usurped the throne and having plunged England into civil war that has so weakened him and contributed to his death. Benedict Campbell gives us no sign of this in Part 1 and , except for one cough, shows no signs of the infirmity he suffers in Part 2. In Part 2 he is so intent in showing us how sick Henry is that all of the all-important speeches that finally give us a glimpse into this tortured ruler are unclear amid his rampant scenery-chewing. It is a performance that weakens Part 1 and nearly ruins Part 2.
Prince Hal, alone among the three major characters, continues beyond Parts 1 and 2 becoming the title character of "Henry V". He is also one of the most duplicitous characters Shakespeare ever created. As he explains early in Part 1, he considers Falstaff and company as merely a foil to make his reformation "Show more goodly and attract more eyes". Realistically, it's doubtful that Hal can spend all his time with his lowly comrades and feel nothing for them. Banishing his friends to become king has to be seen to wound him, too, or else he is merely a cad. Graham Abbey, with his strong Southern Ontario accent, is very good at showing us a young man playing hooky from the court, but seems unable to plumb the depths of his character. We see disdain for Falstaff but no love. He says he loves his dying father but it doesn't ring true. His performance is adequate but superficial.
Among the cast of 26, many playing multiple roles, there are a number excellent performances: Barry MacGregor, the rubicund, megarhinal Bardolph; Ian Deakin, the "crafty-sick" Northumberland and the bold woman's tailor Feeble; Thom Marriott as Sir Walter Blunt; and Sara Topham, who plays a moving Lady Mortimer, Hotspur's wife, although all her lines are in Welsh. In Part 2 Keith Dinicol is very fine as the introductory chorus Rumour and as the swaggerer Pistol, whose language overflows with sesquipedalian expressions and literary references. William Needles (the timid Justice Silence) and Lewis Gordon (Justice Shallow with the would-be madcap past) bring down the house in each of their scenes together.
Jonathan Goad plays Hotspur, Prince Hal's rival in Part 1. He captures the choler and charisma of this impetuous young man, but often at the expense of clarity of diction. Stephen Russell is fine as the stern Lord Chief Justice, who tries to keep Hal and Falstaff in check, but, despite his Prospero-like garb, he plays the would-be Welsh magician Owen Glendower no differently. Richard McMillan does not differentiate in his playing of the Earl of Worcester in Part 1 and the Earl of Warwick in Part 2 which is confusing since the two characters are on opposing sides in the civil turmoil.
The normally excellent Diane D'Aquila never manages to get a hold on the character of Mistress Quickly and her mixture of love and exasperation regarding Falstaff. The usually reliable Kate Trotter turns in quite a bizarre performance as Doll Tearsheet in Part 2, shouting her lines in such an odd accent it's impossible to know what she's saying. Neither Robert Hamilton (Hal's brother John) nor Evan Buliung (Hal's friend Poins) delineate their characters clearly.
Some of these failings have to be put down to Scott Wentworth in his first directorial assignment at Stratford. Unlike the other three Shakespeares on offer at Stratford, in these Wentworth at least shows he understands the overall meaning on the plays. The map covering the stage in Part 1 emphasizes the threat the rebels pose in dividing the kingdom. The pillow-as-crown gesture Henry IV makes near the end of Part 2 echoes the same gesture Hal and Falstaff make early in Part 1 and highlight the choice Hal must make between his pseudo-father and his real father.
Wentworth is very skilled in making good use of the stage, but he could have used more theatrical gestures to highlight the parallels between the various plots. And he falls short when it comes to clarifying the characters' complex relationships. What has made the Henry IV plays popular even in non-Anglophone countries is not just Shakespeare's insight into politics but his portrayal of personal relations. Under Wentworth's direction the main characters all seem isolated from each other and many crucial scenes are played with the characters standing as far apart as possible. Besides this, Wentworth's habit of having one scene begin before the previous scene is over often means the key summary lines of each scene are often lost.
Patrick Clark's stage design is thankfully minimalist and recalls Stratford's heyday when Shakespeare could be played on an unadorned stage. Yet, people will find his costume choices odd. The court are clad in 19th-century outfits. Hal and his mates look as if they've come from the 1970s with wide collars, unbuttoned shirts and necklaces. Falstaff and Mistress Quickly are costumed with a Renaissance cut in Part 1 and a 19th-century cut in Part 2. Henry in his important meeting with Hal in Part one looks distinctly unkingly in his plain shirt and suspenders.
Given the monochrome stage design it is Louise Guinand's masterful lighting that sets mood and location. John Stead has created the fights including the exciting broadsword battle between Hal and Hotspur in Part 1.
In 1979, the last time Stratford gave us both parts of "Henry IV", Peter Moss directed with Lewis Gordon as Falstaff, Richard Monette as Prince Hal and Douglas Rain as Henry IV. The present production in no way surpasses that in insight, humour or emotional depth. But that was a long time ago. At least the current production generally shows what the plays are about and has one compelling central performance.
For fear that the Festival will continue to neglect Shakespeare's Histories, that I may have to wait another 22 years to see them and that there seems to be no one on the horizon who will ever play Falstaff as well as Douglas Campbell, I've planned to see both parts twice.
©Christopher Hoile
Photo: (top) Jonathan Goad and Graham Abbey; (middle) Douglas Campbell as Falstaff. ©2001 Stratford Festival.
2001-08-30
Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2