What makes a King?
Dame Harriet Walter leads an all female cast in Phyllida Lloyd's exuberant production of Shakespeare's monumental history, Henry IV. Set in a women's prison, Walter plays the arrogant but afraid Henry IV, capturing the world weary troubles of the usurper expertly. Challenging the notion of 'Who owns Shakespeare', this is the second in director Lloyd's trilogy of all-female productions of the Bard's histories, beginning with 2013's Julius Caesar, once again set in the confines of a prison.
What makes a father?
Looking beyond gender, this Henry IV focuses on the ubiquity of the power stuggle and the universality of duty, family & country.
Troubled by the removal of King Richard III, Henry IV finds difficulty in securing his claim to the throne. With rebellion growing from those factions that put him on the throne in the first place, an errant son carousing with degenerates, all actions lead toward battle. Shakespere offers us a story behind the scenes of the early days of the British Monarchy, and the lengths men were prepared to go to to weild power.