Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – TFANA’s luicedly-acted, single-evening HENRY IV emphases intimacy and full engagement with the language

• By drediman
• February 22, 2025
• No Comments

This past week in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, I was able to catch up with Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Henry IV at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. Despite its title, the work’s primary interest actually falls on Prince Hal and his ascendancy to become Henry V at the conclusion of the epic. As skillfully adapted by Dakin Matthews, this version combines and smartly re-arranges the proceedings of the two plays that comprise this chapter of the Bard’s History Plays into a single evening of theater that clocks in at nearly four hours, rightfully focusing more on the key events of Part 1 over the more superfluous and derivative second installment (the excellent adaptation was last seen in New York in 2003 in a starry Lincoln Center Theater production, which I was fortunate enough to have seen).

The cast all around is fantastic — both individually and as an ensemble — evoking just enough of a modern sensibility to be accessible to today’s audiences yet still true to 15th Century Britain. Henry IV is mammoth play that boasts a small village of distinct characters, and these players do an utterly impressive job of shifting between them at the turn of a dime. Matthews plays the title character with vivid character, imbuing the aging king with increasing frailty as the evening unfolds. As the rival princes Prince Hal and Hotspur, respectively, Elijah Jones and James Udom do well to portray these mirroring characters’ inherent nobility, as well as the fallacy of their youth. The production also features a number of superb character actors, namely Steven App and John Keating in a host of delicious turns. Last but not least, the great Jay O. Sanders as Sir John Falstaff gives an uncommonly empathic portrayal that thankfully doesn’t destabilize the production.

TFANA’s stripped-down production, which has been divided into three parts separated by two intermissions, has been staged with efficiency and inventiveness by Bedlam artistic director Erick Tucker, a director who has proven time and time again that he knows his way around classical dramatic texts. Indeed, there’s a distinct Bedlam ensemble-based aesthetic that courses through the production. Throughout, Tucker and his sensational cast prioritize lucidity, emphasizing intimacy and full engagement with the language. This Henry IV unfolds with astonishing fluidity — athleticism, even — making the four-hour running time fly by. Each act exudes its own directorial flourish (e.g., the second act is staged as if it were a boxing match), which contributes to the texture and variety of the rich storytelling.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

HENRY IV
Off-Broadway, Play
Theatre for a New Audience
3 hours, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 2