Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Power in Painful Transition (it’s an election year!): Ivo van Hove’s audacious and stunning KINGS OF WAR

• By drediman
• November 4, 2016
• No Comments

The company “Kings of War” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Last night at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, I had the opportunity to catch Ivo van Hove and Toneelgreop Amsterdam’s audacious and altogether stunning Kings of War, a four-and-a-half-hour marathon combining Shakespeare’s Henry V, Henry VI (Parts I, II, and III), and Richard III into a single engrossing narrative. However, instead of splicing this single ongoing story by play, Mr. van Hove smartly presents each of his “chapters” by monarch: Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII. Despite the production’s epic length, I was on the edge of my seat throughout. Mark my word, you don’t want to miss this one.

One of the things that struck me most about Mr. van Hove’s streamlining efforts here is how well Henry V (really, the play begins with a scene from Henry IV, in which Prince Hal has his last exchange with his father, Henry IV) fits into the ongoing narrative of Henry VI and Richard III.  What Mr. van Hove makes brutally clear is how power (in this case, British kingship) exposes weaknesses in those who possess it. Until now, Henry V has always seemed to me more of a valedictory play about heroism and noble leadership. However, in the hands of Mr. van Hove, Henry V is a merciless, bullying warmonger – someone you wouldn’t want to have in power during peacetime (his hilarious wooing scene of the French princess Catherine in this production is telling). Likewise, Henry VI is reminiscent of Richard II, ineffective and ill-advised; his reign is marked by civil unrest and poor foreign policy decisions. Edward IV is cursed by an ambitious family member (guess who?). And, well, Richard III is Richard III, which is to say, evil incarnate.

Kings of War finds Mr. van Hove back in thrilling top form. Although he typically does his most striking work for his theater company Toneelgreop Amsterdam and its superlative group of Dutch actors (yes the production, in addition to being four-plus hours, is performed in Dutch with English titles), I don’t think I’ve seen a more fully satisfying Ivo production in quite some time. Theatrically, there’s a lot going on here. Mr. van Hove brilliantly and often brashly experiments with dichotomies – public verses private lives, film versus theater, portrayals in the media versus reality, and so forth. Even Mr. van Hove’s trademark relentless emotional intensity fits well with the personal and political high-stakes of the Bard’s history plays. There’s almost too much going on at any given moment to fully take in, and it’s this wall of events, much like history itself, that makes Kings of War (complete with a live horn section and a DJ) such an exciting piece of theater to watch unfold.

It’s only fitting that Mr. van Hove’s Kings of War arrives on our shores on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. Its feverish depiction of power in multiple iterations of painful transition can very well be taken as a theatrical manifestation of the excruciating months leading up to November 8^th. Indeed, more than any of the excellent mountings of the history plays I’ve seen over the course of the last year or so (in total, I saw an unprecedented six different productions!) – Donmar’s all-female Henry IV at St. Ann’s Warehouse directed by Phyllida Lloyd; the RSC’s magisterial, complete Henriad at BAM; Barbara Gaines’ punk rock yet crystal clear mash-up of the complete set of history plays, “Tug of War”, at Chicago Shakespeare; Stratford Festival’s emotionally involving Henriad set, “Breath of Kings”; Druid Theatre Company’s highly theatrical Henriad, “DruidShakespeare” – Mr. van Hove’s Kings of War, pitched so aggressively to comment on our modern times, strikes me as the ideal staging to cap it all off, especially now.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 KINGS OF WAR
Off-Broadway, Play
Toneelgroep Amsterdam at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
4 hours, 25 minutes (with one intermission)
Through November 6