This was the first part of a two-part adaptation of the three Henry VI plays – although here we start near the opening of Part 2.
The first, longest, part was superb – I found it dramatically very engaging with the constant Machiavellian weavings of everyone immediately after the welcoming of Henry’s French wife. For me, recalling Henry V and the picture of him given compared to his son here was fascinating – it’s certainly a very unflattering portrait of him, being so weak and indecisive – and gullible. It was also fascinating to watch Gloucester, the future Richard III and how cleverly he manages to be a major plotter and yet, somehow, seem to keep his hands clean. It was also interesting, and surprising, as to how funny the play was – I am not sure if that is wholly text-based or a result of the direction – a bit of both I suspect – but it was very effective.
However, the latter part, with the Jack Cade rebellion I found much less successful. The episode, while it can be seen as dramatically significant as showing the start of a society that is in the process of being split by a civil war, did seem to come out of nowhere and the characters and relationships, such as they were, seemed rather heavy-handed and simplistic. – and having a lengthy scene-change just for the final section of the evening seemed clumsy and unnecessary –the stage was not radically changed and the flow of the drama was disrupted. However, involvement was restored at the very end of this first part – significantly, once we returned to the King and the nobles.
The staging was sparsely effective with different level platforms over the stage (some a little high, it seemed, for actors to comfortably to negotiate wearing long dresses) and at various stages black and white video images were projected on a strip-curtain near the rear of the stage. This seemed unnecessary almost all the times that it occurred as it did not add anything to what we were seeing enacted on the stage – it merely repeated elements visually and rather pointlessly I thought.
So, very effective and engaging and I am much looking forward to the second part.