'Henry IV' a direct hit
San Jose Mercury News
Nobody (outside the theater) really knows what a stage director does, but
you can see whatever it is in action at the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival.
For a vivid demonstration of the unknowable, have a look at the festival's
"Richard II" and the newly opened "Henry IV, Part 1" -- preferably back to back.
The difference between these two plays is astonishing. The same actors,
many in the same roles (as they continue from one historical drama to the
next), turn in middling performances in the one and outstanding work in the
other. The sets and costumes are basically the same; one script is certainly as
fine an example of the Shakespearean canon as the other. All that has
changed is the director. I guess you could best compare the director to the
commanding officer of a regiment. Like the CO, the director decrees tactics,
plans strategy, assures logistical support and deploys personnel in the
positions he perceives they can best fill. He inspires. He supervises. He leads.
He controls the big picture. He does not, himself, act in it.
Julian Lopez-Morillas, a veteran of the festival and the Bay Area theater
scene, has directed many a fine production. But "Henry IV, Part 1" may be his
very best yet. It's not rich in worldly goods, but sweet, in this case, are the
uses of adversity.
South Bay theatergoers will have a rare chance to see the festival in action
Tuesday without driving an hour or more to Berkeley. "Henry IV, Part 1" plays
at Foothill College as part of the Foothill Performing Arts Festival.
Despite its title, this play is only incidentally about King Henry IV, whom we
last saw deposing his cousin, Richard II, thus becoming the first
non-hereditary king in modern English history.
Having gotten Henry Bolingbroke onto the throne, Shakespeare apparently
wearied of the civil insurrections that preoccupied poor Henry for the next 14
years. The playwright turned instead to the more interesting character of
Henry's son, the scapegrace Prince Hal, and his reprobate friend, Jack Falstaff.
Both these roles are played by strong, nay, splendid performers: Prince Hal by
James Carpenter, who has done consistently excellent work in even the
tiniest roles for Berkeley Repertory Theater these past two seasons; and
Micheal McShane, whose gluttonous Jesus stole the show in ACT's "Faustus in
Hell" this spring.
Falstaff is in many ways the easier of these, and McShane has a field day with
Plump Jack's larger-than-life appetites. Blessed with the proper girth for the
role, McShane plays it without padding, wheezing his way from bed to board.
He is dishonest, profane, lecherous, drunken, gross, vainglorious -- an utterly
charming rogue, whether lifting a purse, embellishing an outrageous lie to new
heights of outrage, feigning a war wound or weaseling out of paying his tavern
bill.
Carpenter's creation is far more subtle: an enigmatic young man, as
Lopez-Morillas correctly observes in his director's notes, who roisters with one
eye on the clock of history, as it were. He enjoys his debauched associates
hugely but never participates in their misdeeds, and when the time comes to
make reckoning with his irate father, he makes it. The reconciliation scene of
the two Henrys (Tom Ramirez gives full weight and authority to the king's
anger) is accomplished simply, strongly, movingly.
With carriage, gesture and gaze, Carpenter's Hal is both player and ironic
observer, able to sense the changing demands of history. We sense, early on,
that his misconduct stems from an all-too-understandable reason: his father's
constant, disappointed comparisons of his son to the peerless warrior
Hotspur, son of Henry's deputy and later enemy, Northumberland.
Having paid back his father with further disappointment and seen how little
satisfaction thereby was gained, Hal realizes -- as Falstaff does not -- when to
give over his youthful carousing and accept the responsibilities of his lineage.
The bitter results of their parting can be seen in September, when the
festival produces the darker "Henry IV, Part 2."
There are so many accomplished performances in this production that an
inelegant list will have to suffice: Leo Downey as the wine-soaked Bardolph
(complete with beacon nose); Lura Dolas, a womanly and careworn Kate
Percy; Ann Houle, the stout and honest landlady, Mistress Quickly; Michael
Sullivan as Francis, the frantic tapster (beer-carrier).
With 26 actors playing 34 roles, it's inevitable that some do not fill all parts
equally well. Douglas Sills makes an engaging, gap-toothed ruffian of Ned Poins
but blusters and bellows as Douglas, lord of the Scots. Loren Nordlund, a born
comedian, is delightful as a porter but not much as either the Earl of March or
Lord John of Lancaster. Clive Chafer barely registers as Peto but is far more
accomplished as the stout- hearted Sir Walter Blunt.
Chris Ayles may be the biggest surprise. After his appalling York in "Richard II,"
it's good to see his cool, calculating Homo politicus, Worcester.
On the other hand, nothing has changed with John Sefton. He plays Owen
Glendower, the George Washington of Wales, as a cartoon Merlin, glistening of
eye and incomprehensible of diction.
Peter Kjenaas promised to be such a good Hotspur in "Richard II" that I can't
understand what happened. Let's just say that his temper seems to have run
away with his characterization -- and he has developed a ridiculous stammer,
too, spluttering a lot about "B-b-b-bolingbroke." When he pulls back from the
brink of apoplexy, he's quite good.
The dominant costume element throughout the cycle is black sweat suits,
worn by all the actors. Over these, the costume designer can layer whatever
he/she pleases. In this play, Eliza Chugg has created robes and tunics of
linsey-woolsey in soft, neutral colors: beige, burgundy, gray.
The best set piece (by Gene Angell and Ron Pratt) is a two- sided tent: khaki
for Hotspur's camp, reversing to scarlet and blue stripes for the king's. Linda
LaFlamme's music for timpani and trumpet is better, there being much less of
it.
-Judith Green, San Jose Mercury News
July 20, 1987
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