Henry IV

The Making of a King

By - Jul 7th, 2008 02:52 pm

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Taking place in two separate feature-length parts, William Shakespeare’s Henry IV rarely appears in its entirety. This is a lamentable situation, as Shakespeare’s style of storytelling benefits a great deal from a longer, more involved plot structure than a single feature-length play will allow for. In its entirety Henry IV forms the middle half of a four-part series that begins with Richard II and ends with Henry V. Milwaukee Shakespeare closes out its four-year production of the series this coming February with its staging of Henry IV, while this summer, the American Players Theatre in Spring Green launches its abbreviated production of Henry IV. The play is largely focused on Part One, with a heavily edited version of Part Two to round out a single two-hour presentation. While it’s a pretty fair substitute for anyone who might not have caught Shakespeare’s classic in its entirety with Milwaukee Shakespeare these past two years, the APT’s truncated Henry IV isn’t the breathtaking tale of power and intrigue that it could have been.

James Ridge puts in an admirable performance in the title role, carrying a weary restlessness with him. Ridge musters a commanding stage presence, but the rest of the events of this particular adaptation fail to harness his energy to power a coherent stage dynamic. Fusing the two scripts together seems to have killed some of the intensity of Shakespeare’s pacing, and Ridge’s performance, which would’ve been brilliant in a more balanced production, can’t help but flounder a bit here.

APT Core Acting Company member Matt Schwader plays the king’s son Prince Hal. Though Schwader has more than ample charisma in the role of the young prince who carouses with thieves and bandits, the finer ends of his performance lack the finesse needed to show the full intensity of Hal’s transformation into Henry V at the end of the play, and Without the full benefit of all the events leading to that end, Schwader isn’t given enough room to develop.

Brian Mani puts in the single most memorable performance of the production as Hal’s ally Sir John Falstaff. Though he’s largely comic relief, Falstaff is one of the most enduring characters in the series, and the opportunity to play Falstaff gives Mani an perfect spotlight in the production. He takes full advantage. Mani, who performed the title role in APT’s Timon of Athens last year, is a gifted actor and here we see him elevating the ends of an otherwise largely uninspired production of Henry IV.

Mani, Schwader, Ridge and many others hold things together, but the underlying problem here is the script, which fails to bring coherence or power to let the drama stand alone. One of the major consumer-level criticisms of Shakespeare’s histories is that they are long and boring. APT had the opportunity to fuse two of the histories into a package that would be much more attractive to unfamiliar audiences, but their adaptation fails to do this, settling for an adaptation of the two-part script that is weighted heavily on the first part that doesn’t finish the story with enough gusto to make much of an impression. VS

The American Players Theatre’s production of Henry IV: The Making of A King runs now through September 27th in Spring Green. For more information call 608-588-2361 or visit the APT online.

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