Henry IV
Opening Night: November 6, 2015
Closing: December 6, 2015
Theater: St. Ann's Warehouse
On the heels of the Donmar’s revelatory production of “Julius Caesar,” which empowered women to play Shakespearean roles normally reserved for men, director Phyllida Lloyd has set a second play, “Henry IV,” against the backdrop of women in prison. Harriet Walter, “one of the best Shakespeareans alive” (The Guardian), will once again lead a diverse and exciting all-female cast in Shakespeare’s monumental history play which travels to the heart of family, duty and country.
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November 11, 2015
Leave it to an army of sharp-witted women to point out just how much Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” plays are — how shall we put this? — manhood-measuring contests. As embodied by a rousing all-female cast in this seriously entertaining Donmar Warehouse production, which opened on Wednesday night at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, Shakespeare’s soldiers, nobles and carousers seem to be forever engaged in vociferous argument as to who has the bigger …. Well, fill in the blank: heart, courage, entitlement to contested lands, right to be in charge, capacity for alcohol — and for whoremongering and warmongering — and the ability to put a lesser fellow in his place. Whether the tone is drunken rowdiness or somber statesmanship, conversation sooner or later tends to turn into a testosterone-fueled competition for top dog. That may well have been your impression, at least in part, from earlier encounters with “Henry IV, Parts I and II,” which have here been condensed into one compact and explosive whole (and an intermission-free 2 hours 15 minutes). These are the plays, after all, that include those immortal, oppositional forces of braggadocio, Falstaff and Hotspur.
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