Hollow at the heart: 1H4
The beginning of day two of the Histories cycle, and everyone was still looking bright-eyed as we turned up for 1H4, kicking off this long day at 10.30 am. This production left a mixed impression, and I’m genuinely wondering why it didn’t quite gel when it had so many of the right elements, but perhaps it was unavoidable that things should return to earth after the soaring heights of R2 last night. It started promising enough, with Clive Wood on strong form as H4, and with Lex Shrapnel’s Hotspur every bit as good as I had hoped after seeing how he played him in R2. You have no problem understanding H4’s wish that this should have been his son, instead of the deadbeat carouser of an heir that he’s stuck with.
But after this excellent beginning things soon started to go downhill, and the end result is an uneven mix of some very good performances, a number of odd interpretational choices and a production that seems curiously lacking in gravity. It isn’t bad, far from it, it’s actually rather good, it’s just not very interesting, which is strange considering the material that they’re working with. (spoilers coming up)
The major problem with this production is in my view Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Hal, who is lacking in weight in a number of key sequences, with the “I know you all” soliloquy hardly even shifting tone or demeanour from the boisterous exchange that preceded it, and his role playing with Falstaff carries no whiff of a dangerous undertone. This is a Hal that doesn’t come across as a prince in disguise, not even in his exchanges with H4, but rather as one of the boys. Oh well, it might be a matter of personal taste, but some of the underlying tension is missing in this performance.
Personally I see Hal as a rather unpleasant sort of bully (just remember the “fun” he has with the hapless drawer Francis), and someone who basically keeps Falstaff around as his own private jester, even if this isn’t how Falstaff understands the relationship, but I don’t mind seeing other interpretations, as long as they work. This one doesn’t really, even if Hal’s genuine affection for Falstaff comes across clearly enough, and I can’t see the king that is to come out of this character. Hopefully 2H4 will see this change.
Even though David Warner is a very good actor he seems somewhat miscast as Falstaff, which makes me wonder who I would rather have seen playing this part. A while back I raised the topic of “Dream Shakespeare Line-up” on the discussion boards, and I’m now asking myself who I would rather have seen as Falstaff in this production, maybe Paul Jesson would have been an interesting choice. Warner seems to be an exception to the whole ensemble idea, as he doesn’t seem to be in any of the other plays, just this one and 2H4, which is a shame, it would have been interesting to see him have a go at some of the other ones as well.
I’ve had it explained to me that every member of the ensemble gets at least one of the eight plays off, and it turns out that 1H4 is missing several of the key cast members that made R2 so outstanding, as this is their play off; no Jonathan Slinger or Richard Cordery to be seen in this one. Pity. Some good calls in this production, such as not cutting the scene with the ostlers, that brings a bit of extra complexity, a great staging of the big battle with all those counterfeit versions of H4 making a united entrance, and the funny bits actually being really funny, even if the crowd participation bit seemed to somewhat take the edge off of Falstaff’s unsavoury practices in raising his band of men. Some things annoyed me, such as the needless and loud insertion of Lady Percy into the background of Hotspur’s big speech before the battle, but then I also found her character quite bloodless to begin with.
Any production of 1H4 needs strong performances from its Hal and Falstaff, and while David Warner’s Falstaff is at times the real deal, this production suffers badly from the lack of complexity that Streatfeild’s Hal exhibits, not to mention the way that he needlessly rushes through some of the lines. When the showdown with Hotspur came, I found myself thinking that it was a real shame that the play text meant that we’d get to see no more of Hotspur after that, but instead have to sit through two more plays with this remarkably shallow Hal. Please let Streatfeild find some depth in 2H4, and I’m really beginning to dread seeing H5 if this is anything to go by, we might be in for a long evening.
It’s overall a good production, if nowhere near the heights of last night’s extraordinary R2, but there are some individual performances that shine considerably more than others, particularly Lex Shrapnel’s wonderfully driven Hotspur, all fire and excitement, and unable to contain or hide his pride and inflexibility in the exchanges with Glendower, Julius D’Silva’s wonderfully comedic Bardolph and Maureen Beattie’s excellent Mistress Quickly, which promises great things for 2H4. But this is a production that lacks a strong centre to hold it together, and I do hope that 2H4 will mean a change in tone as well as direction.
//Jenny
