Henry IV, Part I Part I

Three posts in one day is a record, but I wasn't planning on the Greed and Debt stuff and have wanted to write about "Henry IV, Part I," since last Sunday. Carol and I went to NYC to see ShakespeareNYC's production of what has been described as the best history play that will ever be written. We saw this play as part of seeing all of eight of Shakespeare's history plays in Stratford on Avon in February so it was a little bit of an adjustment to see it on a smaller scale in a small theater that had to be only about 25% full.

One thing that struck me was how difficult that must be for actors to perform before such an empty house. Supposedly Alan Howard once said something about actors about to go on stage having enough adrenalin to kill a horse or something like that. It must be incredibly frustrating to reach that emotional state, see such a small turnout and still deliver a top quality performance. I know as an amateur preacher, primarily of stewardship sermons, that I have gotten resentful and sometimes distracted by such small turnouts.

While it certainly wasn't the best production I have ever seen it is a great play and I get something out of it every time I see it. In this production the actor playing Falstaff did an especially good job with the "catechism" on honor - looking directly at audience members as he asked "Can honor heal a wound?" etc. It was very effective.

"Henry IV, Part I" is the first history play that I saw from beginning to end. My introduction to the history plays was the 1960's "Age of Kings" television series. My freshman English class at Wayne High School was told to watch it and I was the only one stupid enough to do so. Each play was divided into two sections and I came in for the second half of "Richard II" which I didn't like then and still don't like now probably because I dislike the title character so much.

Then the next week came the first section of "Henry IV, Part I" which I know included the great tavern scene. I know that because while there were no commercials in these shows there was an intermission and the host introduced the second section by saying something like "and now what you have all been waiting for, 45 minutes of Falstaff" or something like that. Well I hadn't been waiting for it and I didn't like Falstaff either, I thought him to be too silly, a strange idea for a 14 year old which probably says more about me than about anything else.

I think it was in large measure because probably without knowing it I had already begun my fascination with Hal later Henry V. I think in some way I understood the point of his soliloquy in Act I where he tells the audience that his wild behavior is all an act. So I still wasn't that impressed by the first section of this play, but the second section a week later hooked me for good. All the sections had sub titles this one was "The Road to Shrewsbury" and the host forewarned us that Shrewsbury was a battlefield.

I think it was the final confrontation between Hal and Hotspur that did it for me, not the physical fighting, but the speeches. Hotspur was played by Sean Connery and I have never seen a better one, Hal was played by Robert Hardy and he was good as well. One thing is for sure after that I looked forward to my hour plus each Monday with Shakespeare and the history plays - very strange for a high school freshman. There is still a lot more to say so there will be another post about this play, but certainly not today and probably not until Sunday.