All good things . . .

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Yesterday Siri and I were up before the sun to go to London and watch our final two performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in the History Cycle. We saw the sunrise from the bus which was really cool. The sun was huge and a beautiful red-orange with a ray shooting straight up. After a long bus ride and a quick journey on the Tube, we arrived in Camden and in front of the Roundhouse theater. We were perhaps a bit excited. Okay, we were extremely excited. To be able to see this cast perform two more plays was amazing. The first play at 10:30 was Henry VI, part one. Henry V has just died and his very young son is now king. However, he doesn't do much ruling, on account of his age and ambitious advisers, and problems in France are coming to a head as Joan of Arc appears upon the scene. Siri and I spent the first few minutes of the play re-identifying who all the characters had been in previous plays and getting more excited each time another actor appeared. The portrayal of Joan of Arc was very interesting as she was played more like a witch and as in love with the Dauphin, Charles, instead of as a sweet, innocent maid with an errand from God. It really got me thinking about how historical "heroes/heroines" are portrayed or seen by other cultures. It is in this play that the War of Roses is also begun. The roses, white and red, are plucked off the vines and York and Lancaster are suddenly divided in Young Henry's kingdom. He tries to keep peace, but it doesn't work very well, as is shown more in the second play. I also found it interesting that in this play, Henry V was looked on almost as a legend and his deeds and victories against France magnified. The play started out with the burial of Henry V but at times throughout the play, he reappeared. I thought that the best one was when The Duke of Bedford had just lost his arm fighting and refuses to be carried off the field for he had once read "That stout Pendragon, in his litter, sick,/ Came to the field, and vanquished his foes;" - yeah for references to King Uther! Anyway, then they staged it so that it seemed like Bedford was calling on or calling forth the spirit of Henry V and all the ideas of valor and courage that are incorporated with the idea of him. And Bedford threw open the trap doors - one handed - and out came Henry with a sword in each hand and charge into the French followed by the English. It was pretty cool. One of my favorite parts, though, was the interchange between Lord Talbot and his son John. Talbot was an army hero and the "scourge of the French". John was, to Siri's and my delight, played by Lex Shrapnel who had played Hotspur in Henry IV, part one. So the father and son are facing the French army without any backup coming because the Duke of Somerset (Lancaster, red rose) and Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (York (obviously), white rose) both say that the other is keeping them from sending back up. Anyway, Talbot tries to convince his son to flee, to live and revenge him, for he knows that if he stays they both will die. But John refuses because he says then he wouldn't be a true Talbot and would be looked on as a coward. The cool thing about this whole scene was that they were alternating lines and the lines rhymed, and they were just shooting the lines off. It was great! Act VI, scene V, if you are curious. The play ends with the defeat - temporarily - of France and death of Joan of Arc and the Duke of Suffolk - played by Geoffrey Streatfeild, the same actor who played Henry V - falling in love with Margaret, the daughter of the King of Naples. Problem - he is married, so he gets Henry VI to agree to marry her even though he was going to marry someone else. The play ends in suspense - England ruled by a very young king, the houses of Lancaster and York on knife's edge, and Suffolk beginning his own game.
Back out in the sunshine of London, Siri and I found a place to enjoy our lunches and study for Storm's philosophy test before walking back to the theater and finding our seats for the second installment. The play starts out with Henry's marriage, but all is not well in England as Henry is beset by advisers who each are trying to get their own ends accomplished. His uncle, Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector, has an ambitious wife who wants him to take the crown for himself. The Duke of Suffolk wants to be the power behind the throne controlling the king through the queen. Cardinal Beaufort, Henry's great-uncle, is not without ambition and is deeply opposed to Gloucester. Richard, Duke of York, also has a legitimate claim to the throne of England. With all these intrigues behind the throne, Henry's reign is anything but peaceful. The great thing about watching the History cycle with the same cast is the repeating roles. The idea that history repeats itself is very apparent when actors are playing similar roles as different characters. Like Clive Wood, who plays both Henry IV and Richard, Duke of York. Both of these people/characters usurp the throne of England - or try in Richard's case. Or the fact that Richard II and Richard III are played by the same actor. Things like that are really cool. The sword fighting in this play was also great as there was much more actual contact between the fighters. It was really fun to see all the intrigue that can go on behind the scenes in court life. The alliances that are formed and enemies that are made and the combinations of different groups to take down a common enemy, are interesting to watch although it can get confusing. But all the conspirator's plots come to nothing, except for that of Richard, Duke of York whose son becomes Richard III. Richard wins the support of the Neville family - Earls of Salisbury and Warwick - after sketching our his family tree with rocks. Gloucester's wife is found at a witch's ceremony, and banished to the Isle of Man. Her husband is killed through the combined efforts of Suffolk and Cardinal Beaufort with support of the Queen. This plot is discovered and the Cardinal dies in bed with the ghost of Gloucester holding down his hands so that he can not "make a signal of hope" of salvation. Meanwhile Suffolk has been banished, and this started one of my favorite parts of the play. On his way to France, Suffolk is murdered by the ghosts of Talbot and his son. The creative license that they took with this part of the play was amazing and so well done. After Suffolk is beheaded - off stage, of course - his headless body is taken by the fishes and dances around the stage. Then enter Jack Cade who has been encouraged by Richard to incite revolt and he claims that he is the rightful heir to the crown and king of England. Cade was played by the same actor who played the Dauphin in both Henry V and Henry VI, part one. His band of followers was made up of the dead and odd and was such fun to watch. They even brought an audience member up on stage emptied out his bag. A book fell out and the actor grabbed it crying, "What's this? Richard III?!" It was great! And then they emptied out his wallet and gave his money to a young woman in the front row. It was pretty great. At the end of the play Richard returns from putting down a rebellion in Ireland with an army to back up his claim to the throne and Henry's fragile court is finally split asunder as Richard makes his claim and Henry is forced to defend his throne. It was a great end to our experience with the History cycle, but Siri and I were very sad that we didn't get to see either of the Richard's or Henry VI, part three. If you haven't had a chance yet, check out the RSC's website and search for Henry V and watch the video clips!
After the second performance, we met Siri's parents for dinner at Nando's, a Portuguese restaurant not far from the theater. The food was amazing, and Siri's parents were great. After walking off dinner, we made our way to St. Pancras where Siri and I caught our train back to Nottingham. We arrived back at the flat at midnight - it was one long, but very wonderful day!

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