Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Mark Quartley, Minnie Gale, Arthur Hughes, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Ashley D Gale, Ben Hall, Nicholas Karimi, Conor Glean, Daniel J Carver, Richard Cant, Lucy Benjamin, Aaron Sidwell, Paola Dionisotti, Sophia Papadopoulos, Peter Moreton, Yasmin Taheri, Emma Tracey, Daniel Ward, Benjamin Westerby, John Tate, Angelina Chudi, Felixe Forde, Jack Humphrey, Al Maxwell, Georgia-Mae Myers, Ibraheem Toure.
William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, much like the boy king in real life, often gets unfavourably compared to their predecessor, Henry V. Whilst Henry V is considered a much-loved classic, Henry VI is a rarer choice to be performed. The violent, sometimes chaotic story of the decline of England’s influence in France, and the contentious power struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, is also a lot more sprawling and cumbersome to stage than the more compact Henry V.
However, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s decision to stage this, as historically it is suggested was intended, as a two-part blockbuster, split into 6 chapters (each instalment having two intervals to emphasise each chapter) is nothing short of masterful.
The use of the chain curtain onto which video projections, both live and pre-recorded, gives the set a remarkable depth. This was a set piece first used back in 2013, during the company’s production of Richard II, incidentally the start of both the story culminated here in Henry VI, but also the journey the RSC is on to produce all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays, soon to be completed in the next 12 months.
It allows for intimate moments usually watched from a distant audience seat, to be filmed up close and projected large, so that every facet of the actor’s performance is captured and felt. Most notably, the realisation of a son that during a chaotic battle, he has killed his own father, takes his personal grief directly from the stage and displays it large to the audience, as if they are sat right next to this tragic scene. The composite set as well, broken up and rearranged in each of the gaps between chapters to give a new angle on the drama, is simple yet profoundly impactful.
Yet, at the heart of it all, is the singularly most crucial part of this entire production. Mark Quartley as Henry isn’t inherently weak, or ineffectual as a king. He’s measured, composed, emotive, and compassionate. By today’s standards, he would excel as either a monarch or a politician, where empathy and intellect are prized in our leaders above machismo and military prowess. In the Middle Ages, however, he just feels lost, and Quartley’s characterisation of this lost boy, youthful yet wise, with the weight of ages on his shoulders, doing his best to manage expectation and the toils of war, is utterly compelling. and masterful. It is as close to a perfect performance as you could ever hope to find.
His foil on stage is the passionate, tactical genius of Minnie Gale’s Queen Margaret. She’s not portrayed as a cold, calculating matriarch a-la Lady Macbeth. Instead, Gale’s performance feels unplanned, contemporaneous, and grows in confidence each scene very organically, until the eventual Lancastrian defeat in chapter six where, upon witnessing the murder of her son, her despair is much more strongly felt than her despondent wailing in Chapter three, carrying the head of her lover, the Duke of Sussex, like a mother carrying a new-born child. By the end of the play, Margaret has changed entirely from the character introduced at the start, and Gale’s versatility in delivering this growth in real time deserves credit.
The ensemble has many strong performances throughout, but the play finds itself is most invigorated in Chapter three, with the focus on the commoners’ rebellion lead by Jack Cade, portrayed to absolute perfection by Aaron Sidwell. Sidwell brings such dynamic energy, commanding stage presence, and irreverent fun to a play that up to that point tread more as a historical documentary than a drama. Sidwell utterly changes the pace and feel of the play. It is his debut season at the RSC, and hopefully the start of a long and glorious career with them, because on the basis of this performance, he is a star in the making.
The play also has one eye on the future. War of the Roses sees the introduction of Arthur Hughes’ malevolent and calculating Richard, Duke of Gloucester. From June 28th he will become the first disabled actor to take on the titular role of Richard III for the RSC, and based on his performance here, it is going to be a spectacular turn.
Daring, inventive, emotional, this production is a wonder to behold, and all the component parts of it combine to make this oft maligned play come alive in a way that elevates it to one of their finest productions in this nine-year effort to complete the entirety of Shakespeare’s folio.
Danny Partington