PLAYER KINGS
Noel Coward
Theatre, London
Adapted and
directed by Robert Icke
11 May 2024
The
first Shakespeare play Hal and I saw on stage in English was in 2013 – Henry IV Part One at the Roundhouse
Theatre in London. It was the start of my odyssey with Shakespeare.
Now,
in 2024, with my travelling companion AC, I am incredibly seeing Ian McKellan
as Falstaff in this 4-hour double-hitter Player
Kings Henry IV Parts One and Two. The moment he opens his mouth, his voice
lifts the theatre, the players and the audience up to the world of Hal and
Falstaff - McKellen is Falstaff, fat,
crude, a braggard and a liar, a scrounger and a drunk.
The
play is consistently funny with those intensely emotional moments only
Shakespeare can create. Young Toheeb Jimoh as the riotous, gallivanting,
hopelessly unprincely Prince Hal is excellent and a perfect straight man to
Falstaff. The ending (here, hardly a spoiler because surely you have all read
and/or seen the play) when the new king rejects Falstaff is heartbreaking, as
is Falstaff’s vain and shaking insistence that ’He will call for me privately.’
The
theatre, the Noel Coward Theatre, is stylish and small. AC, who arranged the
whole thing, and I sit high up and have to crane our heads to see the action at
times, but never mind. We ’re seeing it. The scenography is stark and simple,
very effective. The rest of the cast do their jobs finely. But – Ian McKellen.
What a wondrous afternoon.
Thank
you, AC.
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