Henry IV

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On Saturday, Alex, Siri, and I returned to Stratford-upon-Avon to watch Henry IV parts one and two. We arrived in Stratford in time to have a picnic lunch on the river bank before heading over to the Courtyard Theater for part one. It was amazing. Hotspur had a lot of energy and really sharpened the differences between Hal and himself. He always seemed to be moving and usually angry. Hotspur was probably not on stage for 5 minutes before he was striding about and shouting. Almost as soon as Henry IV left the stage, Hotspur sent his chair flying. What really struck me was that while you are reading the plays, much of the emotion is taken out of it - it is easy to picture the nobles sitting or standing and civily conversing and discussing the politics of the kingdom, but on stage the emotion can be seen and felt, and the play really comes to life. The fight between Hal and Hotspur was great - swords clashing and stage blood everywhere! It was the same in the two major interactions between King Henry and Hal. In part one when Henry rebukes Hal for his behavior - there was no calm discussion, Henry had Hal by the shirt and was dragging him around the stage! And at the end of part two when Hal returns the crown - the reconciliation was so moving. There are just some things that need to be seen to be felt - reading it was one thing, but seeing it - ! After the play, we hung around for a few hours, grabbed some dinner and then headed back to the theater for part two - which was just as good as part one. Watching Hal realize that he has to break with his old friends of Eastcheap and become King. It hurt to see Hal sever his ties with his old companion. "I know thee not, old man" (5.5), says Hal to Falstaff. Those words were so cold and sent a knife right to the heart. And Falstaff kept hoping until the very end - "I shall be sent for in private to him" (5.5). He says this to the others that are standing with him, but at the same time you know he is telling himself. The play started off marvelously with Rumor dragging the coffin of Richard II onto the stage. After the ghost of Richard was raised, he appeared a few times throughout the play. The best was when at the end of the first half Henry IV is standing in a beam of light with Richard facing him and sand pouring down upon Henry's head - it looked really cool. Siri and I enjoyed seeing how many parts all of the random extras played and how they kept appearing on different sides.
After the two plays, we went out to our hostel for the night and then set off early the next morning for Nottingham. When we reached the train station, we found that there were no trains running from Stratford - instead we got to take a Rail Replacement Bus. So we took the bus - a very cold bus - to Birmingham. Our ill-luck continued to follow us and there were no trains running to Nottingham. So we got onto a very crowded train to Leicester, and finally in Leicester were we able to board a train for Nottingham - what a journey!

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Comments

[Curtis]

Plays
The plays sound awesome, and you seem to like them a lot.