Roberto Williams and Jahel Caldera (Photo courtesy of Foolish Productions Co,)
Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
Foolish Production Company
Through March 9
RECOMMENDED
“Now you know why I’m so tired all the time.”
I overheard that post-show quip from a cast member of this impudent and impressive mash-up of William Shakespeare’s King Henry IV (First Part and Second Part) and King Henry V and it was easy to grasp their sentiment. Clocking in at just over three hours, director/adaptor Mikey Mulhearn‘s vigorous production consists of meticulously choreographed battle scenes, various costume changes, gender switching of major characters, and a cast executing multiple roles with aplomb. While faltering in spots, it is a laudable reimagining of these epic tales that explore the thirst for power, the treachery of war and politics, and the grim consequences they all have on the rulers and the ruled.
Not long after wresting the throne from his cousin Richard II, a remorseful King Henry IV (Nick Molari) plans a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to seek penance for his predecessor’s death. But he abandons his quest as rival parties, even some involved in his usurpation scheme, now plot against him. Chief of these is Henry Percy (Amanda Charney) and his son and namesake (Kodi Jackman), nicknamed Hotspur for his alacrity in battle. While the King organizes his defense, his son Prince Hal (costume designer Katherine Landreth) spends his time drinking and cavorting with his mendacious minion Falstaff (a suitably fey and padded Libby Wahlmeier) and fellow wastrels in a lowly tavern. As battles rage and blood flows, the prodigal Hal reunites and takes up arms with his father, eventually assuming the crown as Henry V. But will he embrace his lofty role’s responsibility or continue his profligate ways?
While Mulhearn and company possess a devotion for the text, setting the piece in an unspecified epoch and on a mostly bare stage unleashes waves of creative frivolity. Examples include: a bored knight (Jahel Corban Caldera) perusing a modern-day travel guidebooks; the French as cigarette-puffing effete snobs who possess outlandish accents and are accompanied by background music befitting a Parisian cabaret; significant regal missives delivered in the most mundane format; blood from mortal wounds streaming with startling flair; a helmeted Irish miner in contemporary work clothes (Roberto Williams) confronting an English monarch.
Henry V’s proposal scene with French Princess Katherine (Sarah Hinchcliff) tended to drag, while the combat scenes, despite the intricate movements and an irregular weapon Falstaff wields, get tedious after a while. Yet the sounds of modern-day gunfire and explosions overlaying the carnage are chilling reminders of current conflicts. War is hell and Mulhearn and crew do not avert our eyes from its brutal toll on the innocent.
The show’s gender shift in casting, like Hal and Hotspur, makes for captivating dynamics, such as the bittersweet farewell between Hotspur and his spouse, Lady Percy (William Bremer), the moving scenes between Hal and Henry IV, and steadfast soldiers (Kit Gaudioso and Maia Luer) primed for combat. It also augments the humor, as in Daria Good’s pompous and silly walk as the Archbishop of York and Hinchcliff’s blasé French envoy. Casting females in male power roles also serves as a not-so-subtle hint that even a woman in high office, a la Hilary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice, can be as ruthless a warmonger as any man in that same post.
Studio/Stage, 520 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles; Thurs.-Fri., 7:30 pm, Sat., Feb. 24, 7 pm, Sat., March 2 & 9, 6 pm; thru March 9. (March 2 performance will be livestreamed.) Note: Running time: three hours with two 15-minute intermissions. https://www.foolishproductionco.org/buy-tickets
