Word: hotspurs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Practical politics. But is that all? At the Boar's Head tavern, Prince Hal carouses with his companions in open parody of the society at court; at court, "Hotspur" Percy (the other Hal) releases his rage with the complete lack of self-control typical of the society at the Boar. The two worlds, in other words, are peopled with men and women of the same mettle, though any good production of Henry will, as if constructing a strong suit of armor, in joining the various elements hold them in tension...
...peak of this production is reached when Falstaff, balancing his weight on a chair balanced on a table top, wearing a pillow on his head as crown, chastises Hal in mimicry of his father, the king. Even at the climax of the play's final battle scene-in which Hotspur and Hal engage-it is Falstaff the comic spirit who steals the victory, a bit too successfully, quite literally from the jaws of death. As the two Hals meet, Falstaff staggers in to warn his friend that he will "find no boy's play here." But right on Falstaff...
...contrast, the other actors generally remain trapped within the superficial seriousness of their roles. From the first moment he rushes onstage to confront the king, John Bellucci's Hotspur is the embodiment of the choleric passions that gave that character his name. Racing from lord to lord in a plea to keep his prisoners, Belluci's Hotspur is impulsive, impatient and proud. And where his frenetic gestures grow tiring, his beautiful voice, sneering at some words, spitting out others, compensates. Still, the limitations of Bellucci's portrayal are apparent in the scenes he plays with his wife. While Susan Kander...
...heart of his production. Instead, just as the progress of the prince from tavern to court expresses the theme of the play, so Jonathan Emerson's performance as Hal points up the lesson at the Loeb. Emerson handles his comic scenes skillfully, lolling drunkenly onstage, stingingly imitating Hotspur and his lady Percy, and showing, as when he helps the helpless Falstaff into his boots, a tender and subtle shift of mood. But when confronted with a serious scene, Emerson abandons his character to the exigencies of position. So, when reprimanded by the king, Emerson's Hal does not convincingly defend...
...banners behind the prince do not look quite splendid enough; the trumpets ring a little hollow. As the lights go down on this Henry IV one remembers not the holders of exalted positions but the ignoble Falstaff who has already exited offstage, dragging the body of Hotspur as if he had killed the young leader himself. The final lesson of this production is that it is people who endure. The positions they hold, no matter how impressively presented, are, as Falstaff might say, mere "scutcheons...