HENRY VI PART II (Shake-Scene Shakespeare Theatre Company)*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown

Henry VI Part II is believed to be Shakespeare’s first history play. It’s not King John, which is the earliest historically. It’s not Henry VI Part I, which you’d expect to come before Part II. It was Henry VI Part II (though it probably wasn’t called Part II at the time). Well, it was probably the first. It’s difficult to be completely sure with Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare might actually have liked it that way. I think he liked to keep people guessing.

Even though Part I hadn’t been written yet, Part II still continues where Part I left off. Henry VI’s marriage to Queen Margaret was arranged in Part I and in Part II she becomes his wife. The Lord Protectors who were starting to show they aren’t exactly trustworthy continue their plans to keep control of the King and the country. The Duke of York, who accepted his claim to the throne in Part I, completely believes in his right to be King and he has a plan.

As the Shake-Scene productions are live, the plays have one or two intervals which are about five minutes long. This gives the actors and the audience a chance to get a cup of tea but artistic director and book holder Lizzie Conrad-Hughes doesn’t. She follows the script all the way through the play, acting as a prompter and also a swing when actors have internet problems. In this play, she also played several bit-parts – and also closes the play brilliantly with the final speech when someone had an internet issue. But she doesn’t get a break – she talks through both intervals, giving us really interesting information about the play and the way the actors have prepared for the play. The actors are brilliant and so are the plays but I think Ms Conrad-Hughes is a very big part of the play’s success as she is the one who keeps things moving.

In one of the intervals in this play, she talks about the fact that on Zoom, it often works better to give a character a name than to put a job title or general description up on the individual screens. This sounds like so much fun. Ms Conrad-Hughes said she was happy to receive name suggestions and I think if I made a suggestion it would be Innogen. Shakespeare wrote about two Innogens but the one in Cymbeline became Imogen (though Imogen is a beautiful name) and the Innogen in Much Ado About Nothing was deleted because she doesn’t speak. So maybe we could bring back Innogen into Shakespeare.

Henry VI Part II also has a lot of characters. More than in any other Shakespeare play and this is something that’s very clear when you watch it. It’s a really great opportunity for the actors to play multiple roles and it shows the audience just how talented they are. It’s a very long play and there probably are characters who can be cut and the story would still make sense but I am so glad Shake-Scene haven’t done this. The characters are really distinctive, interesting and a lot of fun and one really good thing about Zoom theatre is that the plays can be as long as you like because no-one has to catch the last train home. Even if you do have to go somewhere, you can watch the rest tomorrow. So all these brilliant characters can be kept in and Shake-Scene’s actors are so good, we get to enjoy the acting and obviously the writing.

One of my favourite Shakespeare characters isn’t the sort of person I’d usually like but I think he is so brilliant. He appears in one act and his name is Jack Cade. I think bringing in a whole new character and storyline in Act IV is brave for a playwright anyway as a lot of audiences would want to stay with the characters they already know but Jack Cade is so brilliant, you invest in his storyline straight away. I really wish Elizabeth I had requested a Jack Cade play like she requested a Falstaff play. It would have been so much fun.

Tamara Ritthaler is a really wonderful Jack Cade. He is a bad lad but he has so much energy and confidence and he’s so positive and there’s something so likeable about him which Ms Ritthaler brings out perfectly. She gives him a lightness and something close to comedy which is just what is needed at this point in a brilliant but not really happy play. She also plays the future Richard III and although it’s a small role, Ms Ritthaler does exactly the same thing in grabbing our attention and making us invest in another character who suddenly appears. I’ve had a peep and it looks like she will continue in the role in future plays and that is really exciting.

But that’s just one of the brilliant actors in this play. Larissa Oates is a very likeable Henry VI who looks and sounds like the perfect King but it’s still very clear he’s struggling. I don’t usually like affairs because they’re sad but I do kind of ship Eugenia Low and Siegffried Loew-Walker as Queen Margaret and Suffolk because they have a really strong onscreen chemistry. Matt Williams makes the end of Gloucester’s story really tragic but then he comes back as a hilarious Dick Butcher. Eleanor Shannon is really dynamic as Gloucester’s wife Elianor.

Ellie Zeegan is powerful and devious as the Duke of York. He’s a character I really enjoy disliking and he’s really smooth and persuasive so it’s really easy to understand why people support him. Linda Mathis shows Cardinal Beaufort’s story arc really well – that made me feel quite sad too. Simon Balcon quietly and cleverly organises everyone as Warwick.

Shake-Scene’s Henry VI Part II is so exciting with romance, fighting, plots and really great characters and it deserves five stars at least.