Toronto Sun, June 03, 2002
Regarding King Henry
By: John Coulbourn
Everything's coming up Roses on the banks of the Avon. Before you lose yourself in visions of gathering rosebuds while you may, however, be warned: These Roses have thorns.
We're talking about the War of the Roses -- the bloody struggle for the English crown, the roots of which are explored in several of Shakespeare's history plays. As for the war itself, a struggle to the death between the royal Houses of York and Lancaster, it bursts into open conflict in the three parts of the Bard's Henry VI.
Now, under the aegis of director Leon Rubin, those three parts are reconfigured into two plays, Henry VI: Revenge In France and Henry VI: Revolt In England. Both plays opened Saturday at the Tom Patterson Theatre, under Rubin's direction.
Just getting them there marks a major achievement, requiring the talents of a legion of actors and a major commitment on the part of the Festival, which has already seen stagings of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V and will continue later this season with Richard III.
This new instalment picks up at the death of Henry V and the ascension to the throne of his young son, Henry VI.
The story then unfolds over five and a half hours, (in a matinee and an evening performance) with enough twists and turns, battles, betrayals and beheadings to confuse the most ardent historian and defy any sort of synopsis.
So credit to Rubin, who manages to impose a certain order on his 'cast of thousands,' differentiating quite nicely between the French and the English, the Yorks and the Lancasters, the quick and the dead. He also manages to keep a pretty firm hand on the storyline, leading us through the rise of the Dauphin in France, the rising of England's peasants under Jack Cade and the revolt of the House of York -- all of which figured prominently in sad Henry's reign.
Designer John Pennoyer has created another entire level of bridgework over the Patterson's thrust stage to help Rubin keep the action flowing. It also affords plenty of opportunity to showcase the impressive fight direction of John Stead. It's bold. It's energetic. And it's loud -- unnecessarily so.
Working with a largely youthful cast, many of them trained here at the Fest's Conservatory, Rubin has been forced to settle for a style of declamation that's become all too common here. It's all in the shout -- the deeper the emotion, apparently, the louder the shout. The War of the Roses should be something more profound than one long shouting match.
Happily, there are bright spots, not the least of which is the casting of Seana McKenna in the pivotal role of Queen Margaret, the determined bride of the clerkish King Henry, played (quietly) by Michael Therriault. Joining McKenna are such veterans as William Needles, Joseph Shaw and Lewis Gordon to prove that Stratford can still give us nuanced Shakespeare, stripped of false volume and thoughtless pretension.
Some of that skill has rubbed off on younger members of the company: Jonathan Goad (more impressive, by far, as Jack Cade than as the Earl of Suffolk), Brad Rudy (Lord John Talbot), and Thom Marriott (the Duke of York).
But there are missteps too. Michelle Giroux's take on Joan of Arc -- a slinky French supermodel patterned after Xena, Warrior Princess, who inadvertently becomes the toast of France -- has little historical merit, even less dramatic.
Still, Henry VI boils down to a cracking good adventure story. And even though it is filled with carnage, it's got a lot more life than your average high school history class.