Word: falstaff
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...sprawling stage piece. Large as it is, even the two-part play is a rounded fragment of something larger-of that turbulent pageant of ambition and treachery, of glory and vainglory, known as Shakespeare's chronicle plays. Even that greatest asset of Henry IV-the bestriding presence of Falstaff-remains a possible peril, for it requires notable performing to do him justice...
Part Score. Dramatically, Part I beats Part II all hollow. It is more tightly knit, it moves with greater speed and swell, and it traces the upward curve of most of its characters' destinies. Falstaff, still the boon companion of the errant, frivoling Prince Hal, swaggers and swills in rich midsummer plenty. In a flare of eloquence and arms, the rebellion against Henry IV, led by the heedless, dauntless Hotspur, progresses to the plains of Shrewsbury, where the day is lost...
...Part II events move downward, and the drama becomes muffled and intermittent. Hotspur lies slain by Hal; the rebels are betrayed and broken; guilt-laden Henry, who had usurped Richard II's crown, sickens and dies; Falstaff roisters now without his Prince, "Who-when he becomes his King-brutally dismisses him. Only for Hal does glory lie ahead...
Acting out this long, congested story, the Old Vic remembered first & foremost that it was Shakespeare. It offered no tricks or natty novelties; its only freedom was to build Part II around Falstaff, partly concealing lumpy drama in lively theater...
...casting of "Around the World" is the most fortunate element in it. From the dancers (incidentally the most beautiful and the mot daring of this and probably any recent season) through Julie Warren and Mary Healy as the female leads to Alan (Falstaff) Reed as fix and Larry Laurence as Fogg's valet, Passport out, the east performs with unusual freshness, gaiety, and enjoyment...