The Player Kings: Part 1 & 2

Photo above by Brett Boardman

In squeezing eight of Shakespeare’s history plays into just nine hours (with short breaks and time off for dinner), Damien Ryan and his 17 actors had to create more than just a speedy turmoil of blood and action, by cutting out boring bits.  

Musician Jack Mitsch spent most of his time banging out on the drum the pistol shots and thud of beheadings. It is after all the story of 100 years of hopeless English monarchs and their murder, of slaughter in battles winning then losing in France, of endless conspiracies and the bloodiest of civil wars.

Photo by Brett Boardman

But this condensed version also offers a clearer and tender view of Shakespeare’s, often repeated, themes – the deadly power vacuum around boy kings, vain monarchs indulged and exploited by favourites, or lacking any just administration of noble and common privileges, and the consequential dysfunction, chaotic governance and guilt which flowed from that first regicide, of Richard II.  These are the Player Kings.

Characters are cut but Ryan’s adaptation keeps the remainder well-fleshed, with an artful cut and pasting of dialogue, and an experienced eye for wit and rich thoughtfulness.  The beautiful, melancholic poetry of Richard II (Sean O’Shea) remains; as does old John of Gaunt’s (John Gaden) vigorous harangue at his governing; and later at Agincourt, Henry V’s rousing speeches to his soldiers.

Photo by Brett Boardman

An ongoing link is also Kate Beere’s brilliant garden of England spread before us, beloved now insecure, flanked by flowers and vines and from a central stage of tiles slopes of lawn sliding into the auditorium.  

Drawing on all his work staging Shakespeare outdoors, Ryan keeps scenes dynamic and sightlines clear with frequent agile but natural movement.  Props and progressive costuming by Lily Moody, Beere and Ruby Jenkins move from stylish 40’s to voluminous 80s, onto a resort world with mobiles, ipads and gangsters, and the men foppish, or in legalistic suits or British army uniforms, and the poor soldiers in France fighting it seems in their underwear. 

The Player Kings keeps Shakespeare’s women as energetic players, notably Richard II’s Isabel of France (Katrina Retallick) and Henry VI’s Margaret of Anjou (Emma Palmer), both exasperated by their husband’s passivity. Margaret is bankrupt after battling for her son’s royal inheritance but as a bag lady still arrives at Westminster to curse her enemies (the  prophesies play out!).  

Ruby Henaway is a wildcat warrior Joan of Arc, here far less a holy child to the English and in Shakespeare’s Henry VI Pt 1 & 2. These plays are rarely staged but within this epic they reveal the most murderous family feuds in the Wars of the Roses.  Scott Witt and other fight choreographers are kept busy.

Photo by Brett Boardman

Puppets are effectively manipulated to play the children, like the doomed princes in the tower and the child Henry VI. Gareth Davies is outstanding as the adult king, ever shuffling from the chaos of his long reign and, in contrast, also as the cold and haunted usurper Henry IV.  Playing out another Shakespearian theme of parenthood and responsibility,  Henry’s  son, Hal (Oliver Ryan) understandably escapes the court for the drunken company of Sir John Falstaff (Steve Rodgers) at the Boar’s Head Tavern – here the production’s clarity gets lost in funny business – but Hal keeps to his promise and steps up to kingship.

Photo by Campbell J Parsons

In one of the show’s successful excursions into modernity, the peasant’s rebellion in Henry VI is reimagined as an union-driven anarchy led by a menacing if jocular Jack Cade (Rodgers), who prompts yet more beheadings.  

It’s a long voyage but eventually the Yorkists win back the Lancastrian crown, under Edward IV (an authoritative Christopher Stollery). But his younger brother, Richard of Gloucester  (played with giggling strategy by cerebral palsy effected Liam Gamble) is ticking off the murders and marriages which will secure his crown.

Photo by Campbell J Parsons

This is an impressive ensemble production given much wit and authority in all roles by veterans John Gaden and Peter Carroll. The cast also includes Andrew Cutcliffe, Lulu Howes, Leilani Loau and Max Ryan.   It’s a compelling immersive experience, a mere nine hours of awe and majesty, surprise and delight, authentic, emotional and fully involving.

Martin Portus

More reading - click here to read Martin's featured interview and profile with Damien Ryan