Player Kings
FOR many actors, retirement is an alien concept, but few have approached their old age with quite the gusto shown by Sir Ian McKellen. Just recently on stage, he’s played Hamlet twice, dragged up as the titular Mother Goose and charmed in romcom Frank And Percy.
Now at the age of 84, he returns to Shakespeare once more as that great buffoon Falstaff in this stitchedtogether adaptation of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. What’s more, his performance is simply majestic – a masterclass in comic delivery and timing that simultaneously captures Falstaff’s dissolute bluster and his more cunning, venal edge disguised beneath.
As for the show around him, it’s a clear and confident modern-dress production, which benefits from a range of fine performances beyond McKellen: Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh is a smart, sardonic presence as Falstaff’s protégé-of-sorts Prince Hal, while Richard Coyle is affecting as Hal’s despairing monarch father, and Samuel Edward-Cook is wild-eyed and menacing as his nemesis, Hotspur.
The one surprise, perhaps, is that it’s the work of maverick director Robert
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Icke, given there’s not much stylistically here to frighten the horses.
If there is a major flaw, it is, dare I say it, the fault of Shakespeare. That’s because the two parts of Henry IV have such a gap in quality between them: where Part 1 balances well the humour of the tavern scenes with the grave affairs of state, and builds to the thrilling climax of the Battle of Shrewsbury, Part 2 is a somewhat incoherent trifle. As a result, this near-four-hour show, unfortunately, does begin to drag in its closing stages.
Nevertheless, it at least finishes off with a powerful moment, when the newly crowned Hal pretends not to know Falstaff, which shows McKellen has just as much handle on the tragedy as the comedy of his character.
The only question is: what great roles are there left for him to tackle next?