Shakespeare Plays Available in Video Format
Scholars Online Educational Resources

Home

All’s Well That Ends Well
Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
King John
King Lear
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Macbeth
Measure for Measure
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Winter’s Tale
Shakespeareana

Available versions

1960: Michael Hayes

1983: Jane Howell


Henry VI, Part 3

Henry VI, Part 3, brings the relatively tedious cycle of Henry VI plays to a close. Largely it’s interesting in that it sets up the cast of characters for Richard III, which is arguably a better-structured play, if not vastly more profound.

This final segment of the trilogy depicts a society in disorder and decay, as the bonds that hold normal human behavior together fray and then, one after another, break. The view is depressing, though it does have a certain horrific fascination. It leads us into the thick of the Wars of the Roses, which shall finally be brought to the close in the next play.

It has the dubious distinction of having four battles on stage, and yet another reported offstage, and it also contains at least one colossal soliloquy.

All the Henry VI plays are relatively scarce in live production, and they have never (at least not in modern times) been great favorites with audiences. (There is some evidence that they were at least somewhat more popular with audiences when they were first written.) On the same principle, there are fairly few film productions as well — mostly from companies releasing them as part of larger sequences.

There are nevertheless some rather interesting pieces here, so they’re worth watching.