A wonderful end to this epic. The longeurs of the Jack Cade episode vanished and while the action is, tbh, rather repetitive with first one house then the other having the upper hand, the performances gripped tightly and the storytelling was passionately involving.
The set, essentially the same empty stage but with the empty throne sitting there all the time, had a more distressed look with areas of gravel which in the latter part expanded to fill a good proportion of the stage -and centrally so, perhaps recalling mass graves – and it was the place where a number of major characters died.
I liked the use/exploration of ‘toxic masculinity’ particularly among the York faction with the laddish aggressive grunts and groans and physical bonding that happened particularly at the end of scenes. This also helped to emphasise the isolation of Henry and this was emphasized in the latter part of the play where he was clearly at one level, wearing chain mail but the lower part was definitely had a strong appearance as a skirt, down to the dart at the back while on his upper body he wore an elaborately designed gold and black covering. And he did not carry a sword and, when this was needed for a knighting, had to take it from the formidable Eleanor, dressed in a blood-red dress with armour on her upper body – an effective gender and role reversal. By the end of the play he was wearing simple a plain robe, with distinct martyr hints I thought and finally excited completely naked the last time we saw him. Henry reminded me, with the element of self-pity and bewilderment as to how he is expected to act, of Richard II – but I would need to revisit the play to fully confirm this. But, given the historical sweep and the potent impact of acts in the past, particularly the deposing of Ricard which, in a way, set off the whole train of events of this cycle, this was dramatically and thematically smart and appropriate.
I also particularly enjoyed the many verbal foreshadowings, largely through Gloucester, of the imminent Richard III and with Margaret, what she experienced throughout this drama made her character’s actions and reactions in R III much more understandable – I realized that if you only see or start with R III. Margaret can simply come across as ‘mad Margaret’ as she is treated by Richard. But seeing what she experienced in the past helps to make it a lot more understandable –and the character more sympathetic.
Wonderful end to an epic then as I said at the start – and am definitely going to get to see Richard III later in the season, not least as the same charismatic actor is maintaining the role.