Henry IV - Workshop

Questions: Call the Box Office at (646) 553-3880 (Monday–Saturday, 1–7pm)

JANUARY 26 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023

EXPERIMENTAL WORKSHOPS/EXPLORING THE HISTORIES

Richard II
By William Shakespeare
Featuring
Christian Camargo as King Richard & Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Bolingbroke

and

Henry IV
By William Shakespeare, adapted by Dakin Matthews
Featuring
Susannah Perkins as Prince Hal; Tom Pecinka as Henry Percy;
Cara Ricketts as Lady Percy; Thomas Jay Ryan as King Henry IV;
and Jay O. Sanders as Sir John Falstaff

Performed In Alternating Repertory by

Heidi Armbruster, Jordan Bellow, Christian Camargo, Byron Jennings, Brenda Meaney, Ajay Naidu, Tom Pecinka, Susannah Perkins, Julia Randall, Cara Ricketts, Michael Rogers, Thomas Jay Ryan, Jamie Sanders, Jay O. Sanders, Krystal Sobaskie

Jimmy Stubbs, Scenic Designer; Nicole Lang, Lighting Designer;
Andrew Wade, Voice Director; Diane Healy, Production Stage Manager;
Jonathan Kalb, Dramaturg

Directed by Eric Tucker

Running Times:
Richard II: 2:30 plus one intermission
Henry IV: 3:05 plus two intermissions
No reserved seating; all seats general admission.

In EXPERIMENTAL WORKSHOPS/EXPLORING THE HISTORIES, the audience will be limited to 150 per performance, seated in-the-round with direct connection to an Ensemble of Actors working script-in-hand with minimal scenery, costumes, and lighting. It will be like attending an open rehearsal in which the Ensemble is exploring and experimenting rather than giving finished performances. The audience will be part of the process. The intimacy of the setting will enable actors and audience to discover together the worlds of the plays: families, parents and children, the journey from absolute monarchy to flawed kingship and civil war.

Richard II, Shakespeare’s prequel to Henry IV,  featuring Christian Camargo as King Richard and Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Bolingbroke, is the story of a vain King Richard, ordained by god, who is deposed by the strong-willed and politically savvy Henry Bolingbroke. This powerful work, written entirely in verse, is renowned for its extraordinary  language and exploration of usurpation, legitimacy, and the divine right of kings.

Henry IV, Dakin Matthews’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 into a single three-act, three-hour play, features Susannah Perkins as Prince Hal; Tom Pecinka as Henry Percy; Cara Ricketts as Lady Percy; Thomas Jay Ryan as King Henry IV; and Jay O. Sanders as Sir John Falstaff. Matthews’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s two plays covering Bolingbroke’s turbulent reign was last produced in New York in 2003 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre where it won multiple Tony Awards, as well as a special Drama Desk Award.

Matthews writes, “There is a long tradition of combining these two plays into one, stretching back to the early 17^th Century, because the first part, as glorious as it is, leaves the full story untold, and three of the four major character arcs unfinished. And though Part One is quite popular—thanks no doubt to the remarkable character of Falstaff—the chance of ever seeing Part Two is very slim for most audiences; and leaving the full story hanging deprives them of experiencing the full scope of Shakespeare’s vision. To achieve the condensation, I have interpolated crucial early scenes from Part Two into the first two acts, and then finished the third act with mostly Part Two material. In the process, some characters are eliminated or conflated, and some scenes are abridged, combined, or omitted. But the gain has been the recovery of the full sweep of history, in which Shakespeare explores what makes a good ruler and a healthy commonwealth in times of crisis and sedition.”

Eric Tucker is the artistic director of Bedlam theater company, “the adventurously lo-fi theater troupe that has earned a reputation for joyfully reinvigorating classic texts, from Hamlet and St. Joan to Sense & Sensibility and Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, a riff on two plays at once, Shakespeare’s youthful romantic tragedy and Chekhov’s mature and moody comedy.” (Sara Holdren, New York Magazine).