Henry IV, Part 2
2014: Gregory Doran

This is continuous with the same year’s version of Henry IV, Part 1, and much of what I said about that performance applies to this production as well. There seems no point in repeating it here.

A few additional points probably bear mentioning. The role of Henry IV himself broadens as the circumstances of the play themselves grow more convoluted, and Jasper Britton’s performance deserves recognition: while I found it somewhat narrow in the former play, it is considerably more varied and interesting here; he achieves a broad range of tonalities, and some real pathos in his last scenes.

Prince Hal is still a major force in the play, but he doesn’t dominate it as completely as he does Henry IV, Part 1. Here the character grows in nuance, without ever losing the essential ambiguity that keeps him puzzling and intriguing. His final confrontation with Falstaff is severe and yet just and controlled; how much is merely performance and how much a reflection of genuine intention is of course the mystery that Henry V is partly to unravel, though one may argue that we never really get to know the essential Hal.

Similarly, Antony Sher’s Falstaff continues to grow more complex, up to his final crushing meeting with Hal at the coronation. His character becomes in many respects more and more objectionable throughout the play, but somehow manages to keep both our attention and some share of our sympathies. I don’t find him the definitive Falstaff, but I’m not sure that such a portrayal actually exists: the part invites a wide range of mutually exclusive options. That’s part of the fun.

Antony Byrne, who played Worcester in the previous play, here takes up the very different role of Pistol. The role is costumed, staged, and played largely for laughs, though there is arguably more to the role than the comic; it is nevertheless amusing in a rather farcical mode. Still, some of his exchanges here and there — especially those with Mistress Quickly — transcend those limitations.

Mostly a comic character, Shallow is played by Oliver Ford Davies, who serves the next year as the Chorus in the production of Henry V, and he is always intriguing to hear.

The play, which seems a bit random and mechanical in its structure through the early acts, comes to a more coherent close in the last act and a half or so: here, the dramaturgy rises to the occasion, and encompasses the rich but puzzling ambiguity of Hal’s premature taking of the crown and his final interviews with the Chief Justice and with Falstaff.

Like Doran’s Henry IV, Part 1, this is a very solid performance — well conceived and well executed — and deserves to be widely seen.

Buy Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Special Edition from Amazon.