Part Two: The Globe’s Edelstein makes Globe history and conjures comedy, tragedy and history with Henry 6 Part Two
(see our review of Henry 6 Part One for more actor and production details)
The Globe and its Artistic Director Barry Edelstein with a cast and crew of 1,000 – complete the Globe’s presentation of the Shakespearean canon using Henry VI Part II (and Part III) in an entertaining, clever and battle-strewn rendition of Shakespeare’s telling of the English War of the Roses in three plays. The stage is first set with a single, lighted crown just stage left. (A similar shape and color make up an art piece in the courtyard of the Globe complex.)
William DeMeritt as York with the cast of Henry 6. Photo by Rich Soublet II.
Edelstein’s uses most of Shakespeare’s Part II and Part III of the series attributed to Shakespeare revolving around the English war between the houses of Lancaster and York and the life of King Henry VI. The Lancaster line acquired the throne through violence that engendered three kings, while the House of York claims hereditary rights that reach further back. The nobles chose sides by selecting either the white rose of York or the red rose of Lancaster. Both houses believe they own France. Comparing writing styles, some think there are multiple authors and was an early work of Shakespeare.
While Edelstein does Shakespeare’s Part I with only a few tweaks, Henry 6 Part Two at the Globe starts in the middle of Scene 2 of Act IV of Shakespeare’s Part II play. This is understandable since the preceding acts recapitulate events in Part One at the point of the introduction of French Princess Margaret (Elizabeth A. Davis) who is to marry the boy King Henry (Keshave Moodliar) to solidify the French and English alliance.
(from left) Ian Lassiter as Edward, William DeMeritt as York, Gregg Mozgala as Richard, and Keshav Moodliar as King Henry VI in Henry 6. Photo by Rich Soublet II.
As program notes indicate, Edelstein intended to trace an arc using the plays to touch our time. The opening mimics the January 6th capital mob, complete with the character of rebellious Jack Cade (Tally Sessions) befit with a buffalo fur hat and horns as one of the rioters wore on January 6th, bedecking the stage with the type of crowd barricades overrun by the mob in Washington DC. Following what some researchers believe were multiple authors work in the play, Edelstein adds modern phrases like “Let’s Go!” and a current event condemnation of using a “private email server” alluding to Hillary Clinton’s use of one when she was Obama’s Secretary of State.
The flat stick sword fights (Fight direction by Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum and choreography by Chelsey Arce) usually have a slap or two between combatants. Not a real fight. The production says it employed 1,000 people in staging the play, but even with a stack of secondary, non-speaking characters, recreating a bloody, medieval sword and lance battle is a challenge.
The show succeeds in portraying battle just enough to allow the audience to go along with the metaphor with the many fight scenes using running actors, shouts, faux sword play and slow-motion silhouettes in the background.
Edelstein chose to take a seven-paragraph sequence when Jack Cade dies in a fight with Alexander Iden (Mahira Kakkar) – or sort of a fight – as Cade’s is felled by a copy of the slow-moving old professor character that comedian Tim Conway invented for the popular 1970’s Carol Burnette Show. It’s one of the few light moments in this otherwise intense production displaying the carnage of Englishman against each other and the French.
Henry 6 Part Two runs through September 15
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