King Henry VI by William Shakespeare

Performed at Shakespeare’s globe 24th July from noon until night

The Cast

Graham Butler
King Henry VI

Garry Cooper
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester

Mary Doherty
Queen Margaret

Roger Evans
Duke of Suffolk / Jack Cade

Mike Grady
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester

Simon Harrison
Charles the Dauphin / Richard

David Hartley
Young Clifford / Duke of Somerset

Nigel Hastings
Duke of Bedford / Duke of Burgundy / Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March / Dick the Butcher

Joe Jameson
John Talbot / Edmund, Earl of Rutland

Patrick Myles
Reignier, Duke of Anjou / Edward, Earl of March (later King Edward IV)

Brendan O’Hea
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York / Lewis XI, King of France

Gareth Pierce
Duke of Alençon / George, Duke of Clarence

Beatriz Romilly
Joan of Arc / Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester / Lady Grey

Andrew Sheridan
Earl of Warwick / Lord Talbot

 

These early plays from the great canon of shakespeare were his first great successes. As plays they have problems – lacking the centrifugal force that say drives Henry IV or the grandiosity that reflects from the helmets of Henry V or indeed the macabre insinuations of richard III as a serial killer and a ladykiller wrapped up in one grotesque. But these are all ideas Shakespeare first essayed in Henry VI.

There are aspects of the vast canvas of the plays which work better than others. So to on stage there were some conceits that worked better than others. sometimes also some of the additional business added little to the performances – mostly totally mesmerising in their virtuoso speech and incredible athleticism. This was the bard alive. so, were I to advise I’d say cut out the coffin being carried through the groundlings at the opening. It isn’t possible to do this well or convincingly. But I loved the use to which it was put once on stage. I adored the Duke of York’s long genealogy speech; I was amused by the Louis XI as the screaming-queen of a king but it became just a little too much of a diva’s aria. I thought the three sons were brilliant – the twisted limping Gloucester; a pretty guileless double-crossing Clarence and the sexy Edward who so grows from a boy-band star into the ruthless king who knows his own mind. There was a lovely over the top  Queen Margaret who knew her mind and her business from the word go. I was less convinced by the holding on to the head of her paramour manque  and the hapless Henry who ran around a bit too much but who when eh was still spoke the lines as if they were imagined inside his head.

The Maid of Orleans is an odd part in the oddest part of the trilogy Henry part I. There is a lot of scene setting in this play and a lot of mock heroics of the sort we will revisit in Henry V. Talbot is so wonderfully drawn and he played to perfection by Joe Jamieson. The rivalry between Gloucester and Beaufort is caught but Shakespeare doesn’t yet quite know what to do with it. The great scene in temple gardens where the rivals in a law suit pick their red and white rose is always spine-chilling. It executed perfectly. One catches the sense of the class of noble thugs held in check by wars in France who will turn to kill one another once they can no longer kill a common enemy. This after all was Hollingshed take of these events and Shakespeare’s history faithfully repeats the narrative take burnished by a century of Tudor propaganda.

I still think the Cade rebellion catches something of the fear of the mob which so defines early modern European societies. The buffoonery with the lawyer who speaks Latin and has his latin tongue cut out…is a joke about Elizabethan society rather than a reflection on the world of Henry VI. The prejudices of the mob may own many common causes but the rancid mob to be feared by Shakespeare’s audience is the one made up of the masterless men who maraud the streets of the London in which they live. Then there is that other sweet scene where a son kills his father in battle and only sees it is his father when he goes to strip the body of its valuables. Immediately this horror mirrored at another spot on the field where we find a father doing the same to his son. Is there anything ever written that better makes the point of the evil futility of war – and for Elizabethans – for the most dangerous of wars – civil war.

The plays really take off once the killing begins in earnest in the second Part. Gloucester’s wife is downed; Gloucester murdered; Beaufort poisoned dies of remorse. Once the big men are out of the way the pygmies may become kings. Again there are certain scenes that just are mesmerising. The murder of Richard Duke of York By Margaret and her henchmen is brutal – like the Goneril/Regan stuff – theatrical genius and it was played so well….real tears to the eyes stuff. The later death of Edward Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI and Margaret) I think is harder since it really repeats what we have been seen before and margaret is a much less sympathetic character than York. The last play is of course focused upon the triumvirate of the boys of York, glorious sons all in it for themselves. We had such fun with Richard Duke of Gloucester (Richard III) who of course is even this early is the villain’s villain – insinuating himself with the audience whom he draws into his amoral world. Clarence ambitious for himself above his family who will end in the butt of Malmsey in another play; and Edward IV a noble who becomes a king to fear and love.

So, there you have it a day in the life of the history of England as imagined from  the perspectives of Elizabethan England. I’d love to meet the cast and give them all a hug. they gave me a day in my life that i will never forget – awesome acting; comedy touched with tragedy and viceversa. I virtually skipped to catch the bus home and walked right passed Waterloo Bridge I was still so bound up with what i had seen.

Thank you….