HENRY VI: REBELLION
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Saturday 7th May 2022
Shakespeare’s history plays – dramatized and fictionalised versions of real events involving real monarchs – inevitably these days draw comparisons with Game of Thrones. Here there be no dragons, but there’s pretty much everything you’d expect in terms of loyalty and betrayal, honour and dishonour, treachery and rivalry, and power grabs galore. There’s violence and gore, and even a mystical scene in which a severed head on a pole is consulted about the future.
Mark Quartley is the young king Henry VI, something of a weakling and therefore ripe for plucking from the throne. There is no shortage of wannabe kings. Chief among them is a deliciously wicked York (Oliver Alvin-Wilson) and the dashing Suffolk (Ben Hall). Quartley is effective as the meek monarch; you will him to stand up for himself and when it finally happens, Quartley shows us the toll it takes out of the frail king. Alvin-Wilson is hugely enjoyable – all he needs is a moustache to twirl, while Hall’s Suffolk has more range as a character. When he meets his violent end, it’s hard to watch. Director Owen Horsley uses suggestion as much as blatant gore, making for some very unpleasant but irresistible moments.
Minnie Gale is tons of fun as Margaret, Henry’s unfaithful queen, a vivacious, unconventional young woman who brings a whole new meaning to getting head from one’s lover…
Lucy Benjamin is powerful as Eleanor, the Duchess of Gloucester. Though she be but little, she is fierce. Oops, sorry, wrong play. Her fellow EastEnders alumnus, Aaron Sidwell, is a treat as rebel and rabble rouser Jack Cade, with a cocky/Cockney swagger and a twinkle in his eye. You expect him to call someone ‘Treacle’ at any moment. Something the play demonstrates all too clearly is how the public can be manipulated by empty promises and stirring rhetoric. It’s a nice touch to have the mob speak lines in perfect unison, showing how they are of one mind/brain cell.
Richard Cant is in excellent form as Uncle Gloucester, matched by RSC stalwart Paola Dionisotti as Cardinal Winchester, whose death scene is the best of the lot.
The huge cast comes and goes but the action is never less than perfectly focussed. The simple staging (rostra and a medieval throne) are all that’s needed; the action is augmented by judicious use of projections on the chainmail backdrop: huge faces looming, and there’s a sequence when Cade and his rabble are roaming the streets, represented here by the corridors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Add to this, splendid historical costumes (such a relief they didn’t set the play at the time of the Cod War or on Mars or somewhere) and Paul Englishby’s superlative music, all mournful horns and stirring strings played live, and we’ve got a marvellous three-hours traffic on the stage.
I can’t wait to see the companion play next week!
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
WARS OF THE ROSES
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Thursday 12th May 2022
The excellent ensemble is back with the companion play, continuing the story of England’s feeblest king. This time there is even more running around, with the severed heads of various characters tossed around like so many basketballs. Director Owen Horsley brings out the black humour of the piece at every opportunity to offset the grisly deaths and the heartfelt grief. Oliver Alvin-Wilson’s York is even more enjoyable, the character being more rounded this time around. His speech of grief for his murdered son and fury for the bloodthirsty Margaret (Minnie Gale being phenomenal again) is the most powerful moment of the first half.
New characters come to the fore. Arthur Hughes as York’s son Richard, who becomes the Duke of Gloucester, gives a show-stealing performance and I cannot bloody wait to see him continue the role in Richard III in just a few weeks’ time. Conor Glean’s Young Clifford, full of righteous vengeance and a Merseyside accent, and Ashley D Gayle as York’s eldest son, Edward, both make strong impressions. Ben Hall, playing middle son George (later Clarence) also does a heart-wrenching grief-stricken moment.
The live video footage not only allows for two locations to share the stage, but also artfully frames the action: clever use of a child’s crown in the foreground while the child that wore it is being butchered makes the violence cinematic and symbolic. Indeed, the only piece of furniture in the entire show is the gothic throne, the thing everyone is fighting over, while the ground it stands on is increasing ruined.
Richard Cant appears in an amusing turn as King Lewis (sic) of France, not quite going the full Allo, Allo! but in the vicinity. Sophia Papadopoulos’s portrayal of the young and valiant Prince Edward is assured, so we’re shocked by his inevitable murder. Lots of killings in this play, and plenty of exciting swordplay, thanks to fight directors Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown.
It’s a time when first names were in short supply. Everyone is either a Henry, a Richard, or an Edward, it seems, so it’s something of a relief when they start referring to each other by place names instead. Who would have guessed that a Duke of York could turn out to be so troublesome?
A thrilling, visceral, funny, and moving production, with Mark Quartley’s conflicted king at its heart. The three-hour run time flies by.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Bum on a Seat 