Theatre

London is currently awash with epic theatre. Shared Experience is presenting more than five hours of ‘War and Peace’ at Hampstead Theatre. It’s a heroic task to track Mark Ravenhill’s ‘Shoot/Get Treasure/ Repeat’ down in various venues across London even if the plays are little more than twenty minutes long. And now the RSC has launched its inspired staging of Shakespeare’s History plays with ‘Richard II’, ‘Henry IV’ Parts I and II, and ‘Henry V’ (the rest follow this week). Right from the beginning of ‘Richard II’, Michael Boyd’s production is haunted by ghosts as Richard II steps over the murdered Gloucester whose death leads to Richard’s deposition and murder. The fascination of watching all the plays together comes from seeing how that deposition casts a long shadow over the rest of the plays as barons repeatedly rebel against their various kings, fathers struggle with sons, and the Eastcheap rabble endeavour to sink as much sack as possible . If occasionally one’s own energy levels sagged over twelve hours of theatre, you only had to think of the 34 actors on stage playing an average of fifteen parts each. No wonder the most moving scene in ‘Henry V’ is that of the King and his soldiers lying exhausted on the ground unable to rouse themselves after the battle of Agincourt.

There have been difficulties with the Roundhouse’s acoustics in the past. But somehow the RSC has solved all the problems and brought the audience together  more intimately than before. Tom Piper’s deceptively simple design places a skeletal, rusty drum at the back, while trapdoors below (the trenches of the English soldiers in ‘Henry V’), and ropes above (from which the French fastidiously dangle) provide Boyd with plenty of opportunities to work vertically as well as horizontally. Added to this is the extraordinary range of Heather Carson’s lighting which is able to transform the atmosphere at the push of a button.

It’s a project that all the actors have been involved in for the last two years and some for even longer. Both Boyd and Richard Twyman (the latter directs ‘Henry IV’ Part II) eloquently make the argument for an ensemble. It’s impossible to think of a recent Shakespearean production which displays so much commitment, skill and revealing detail. The doubling is brilliantly considered. For instance, Lex Shrapnel who plays Hotspur – the young rebel who rouses Prince Hal’s jealousy –  pops up again as the soldier who challenges Henry V making the latter feel that he will never escape his nemesis.  Jonathan Slinger’s doubling of Richard II and Fluellen doesn’t have the same resonance but is simply eye-popping in its virtuosity. Slinger’s Richard, in white make-up and red ringlets (rather like Elizabeth I), swans around outrageously in front of his dour barons. And yet, for all his tantrums and turns, Slinger finally wins sympathy as he passes the crown over to Bolingbroke and rips off his wig to reveal a scaly, bald pate. In complete contrast, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could ever play the doughty, normally tedious Fluellen better than Slinger does here.

One of the joys of these productions is that it has brought David Warner back to the RSC after decades away in a wonderfully subtle performance which manages to show Falstaff’s charm and wit as well as his treachery and to disprove the theory that only fat actors can embrace the soul of Falstaff. First seen sleeping off a long night alongside Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Prince Hal, Falstaff clearly provides Hal with the adventure and amusement that are lacking in court, but at the same time Hal grows cynical as he repeatedly stubs his toe against Falstaff’s ruthless selfishness.

Warner’s presence is so lugubriously enjoyable that ‘Henry V’ suffers from his absence. The playboy prince becomes a determined king in a production that refuses to glorify the wars in France and yet doesn’t quite damn him for his dubious enterprise. Geoffrey Streatfeild as Hal has a commanding presence especially when justifying himself to his sceptical father Bolingbroke. He is one of many actors here who can surely look forward to more lucrative, less exhausting work once the season ends, but who, one hopes, will be taking their skills back to Stratford in the not to distant future.