Henry IV Part II

Sunday Times (11Jan01): [Michael Attenborough] sets Henry IV Part II in an occluded, misty light, even in the country scenes, where Shakespeare deploys Justice Shallow and his colleague Silence as comic relief. The light is sickly, echoing Henry IV's remark about "rotten times". One of his opponents, David Killick's worldly Archbishop of York, comments that "we are all diseased", urging rebellion against the usurper Henry as a purgative. The national sickness is the crisis of legitimacy caused by Henry's seizure of the crown, and it has infected the king himself. This is a fine production, which uses the intimacy of the Swan Theatre to bring you close to the hearts and minds of men who are leaders, but also suffering beings. [David Troughton]'s Henry IV has tremendous presence, even as his ailing body gives place to [William Houston]'s attractively maturing Hal. It is a criticism of sorts that Part II works best when seen in relation to Part I, but such is the forward impetus generated by Houston's performance, I can't wait to see him on Stratford's main stage at the end of August, when Edward Hall directs him in Henry V.