Theatre review: Henry IV Part Two, or Falstaff (Shakespeare's Globe)

"Fie, this is hot weather gentlemen."

Henry IV Part Two lacks the single clear antagonist of Part One, so instead the Globe Ensemble's renaming of the plays calls this one Falstaff, after the character who in this instalment finds out he grossly overestimated his importance to Prince Hal (Sarah Amankwah.) With the start time at 4pm this play occupies the hottest part of this Trilogy Day, and while the emotional depth of this part means it's frequently seen as superior to its predecessor, the story takes a while to get going which sometimes, especially in the first hour or so, gives the production the feel of Difficult Second Album Syndrome. But Federay Holmes and Sarah Bedi's production continues, as in Part One, to have scenes overlap, which keeps the energy up; with the multiple character doubling it also has the actors make a point of swapping roles onstage, nowhere more effectively than when Philip Arditti goes from Doll Tearsheet to Henry IV.

The text reminds us that it's well under a decade since the events of Richard II when Henry, then still called Bolingbroke, was the dynamic young rebel who challenged for the throne and won.

So Arditti being younger than the character is usually cast is a reminder of the ongoing theme of this tetralogy in particular, that it's the weight of the crown and its attendant responsibilities that has brought him to the point of being terminally ill, making the fact that Hal appears unready to take his place a crisis. Of course Hal is actually a lot more prepared than he appears, and this play reminds us of his family's ability to get their way through devious means - Lancaster's (Steffan Donnelly) resolution of the ongoing rebellion by tricking his opponents into a truce he then goes back on is one of those moments I always find more shocking than the triumph Shakespeare seems to intend it as.

Of course betrayal is also very much there in Falstaff himself, who early on is quick to badmouth both Poins (Nina Bowers) and then Hal himself. I must admit Helen Schlesinger still seems an odd choice of Falstaff to me; until last year's As You Like It I'd never seen her in anything remotely approaching a comic role, even coming across as humourless. She's shown better comic chops since then but she's a decent Falstaff rather than one for the ages (admittedly she's got a hard job on the same stage as Roger Allam played the part, so well that years later Ian McKellen is still telling the story of how seeing him made him give up any desire to play the fat knight as he could never better it.) But Schlesinger has some nice moments, turning the regular Globe gag of stealing booze from the groundlings into a running joke and character point and, with this performance being captioned, using the surtitles as a handy prompt when she dried. I also thought she memorably played the scene of Hal's final rejection, showing the way that on top of the rejection itself it's the humiliation of its very public nature that digs the knife in.

The melancholy element of the play is one this production captures well, and it's when Justices Shallow (Sophie Russell) and Silence (Donnelly) arrive with their reflections on mortality that it starts to come into its own. (The not-exactly-subtle suggestion that Shallow and Falstaff might have had a physical relationship when they were young also gives the Trilogy Day a tick in this year's theatrical meme of making characters bisexual at the very least.) With the now-familiar gender-blind casting having kept all the characters' original genders until now it's a bit odd when Russell at one point becomes Hal's "sister, Thomas," but for the most part the no-nonsense approach to casting whoever is the most interesting person for the role continues to yield good results. It's maybe not the most revelatory Henry IV Part Two but, at a stage in a three-show day when you could be forgiven for starting to flag, it keeps you going and ready for the bloody conclusion.

Henry IV Part Two, or Falstaff by William Shakespeare is booking in repertory until the 11th of October at Shakespeare's Globe.

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Tristram Kenton.