If you have trouble remembering the succession of Britain’s early kings, playwright Tom Mallan has a partial answer for you: his adaptation of several works by William Shakespeare called “The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V,” a production of WSC Avant Bard at Artisphere. Mallan, who also directs, uses Shakespeare’s characters and speeches, specifically from “Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2” and “Henry V,” to capture the era when power transferred from King Henry IV to his son. Collapsing time and space, Mallan places his characters in a London music hall/brothel, where a group of women become the Harlotry Players of Eastcheap, lighting up the Boar’s Head Tavern as they act out the story of Henry IV (Christopher Henley) and his son, Henry V, aka Prince Hal (Jay Hardee).
Of course you can’t have a play (or a play within a play) about Hal without including his once-best buddy, Sir John Falstaff (Christopher Henley), the fat and happy friend whose days of drinking and carousing with Hal caused problems for the prince back home. In this souped-up plot, Hal has transferred his affection to Poins (James Finley), and the royal machinery is set to punish Falstaff. By Act II, Hal has given up childish ways and become a straight-laced leader designed to please his father.
| Onstage |
| ‘The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V’ |
| Where: Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington |
| When: To Dec. 4 |
| Info: $25 to $35; 703-418-4808; artisphere.org |
The result is a manic mash-up of familiar scenes and characters, delivered at warp speed, a kind of Marx-Brothers-Meets-Shakespeare-Meets-Keystone-Cops event. Henley is impressive in his dual roles as the lean, solemn Henry IV and the raucous, rotund Falstaff.
All the actors are talented, particularly Hardee as Hal and Sara Barker as Hotspur. Conor Hogan is excellent as Francis. Frank Britton gives a strong performance as Justice Shallow. Ashley DeMain and Sarah Thomas are entertaining as Douglas and Glendower, respectively.
The music by Raymond Bokhour is lively and plentiful. The main song, “Where is Hal?” serves as a rude anthem to hold the production together. Rhonda Key’s and Lynly Saunders’ costumes are delightfully tawdry flights of fantasy. Artisphere’s black box theater is effectively opened up by Tobias Harding. Against one wall is a raised platform, hung with curtains. Several tables and chairs and a few Chianti bottles create the convincing Eastcheap oasis.
Mallan’s use of Edwardian clothes and a silent newsreel played out on an overhead screen suggest that Mallan is trying to appeal to our sense of timelessness and tease modern consciousness out of Shakespeare.
But it doesn’t always work. There are sensational moments and intriguing insights. And there’s nothing wrong with reimagining Shakespeare, as long as the new work adds to rather than subtracts from the original. But Avant Bard’s production subtracts too much, leaving almost three hours of unfocussed action, prose and poetry.
