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.