Matt Ball, Patrick Harvey, Samantha Blinn, Chasen Schneider and Ariana Karp work our way through the Third Act of King Henry IV Part I:
- Hotspur switching between verse and prose in Act III, scene i-what is the significance? Does Glendower’s presence throw him off?
- The fact that Glendower doesn’t snap at Hotspur demonstrates Hotspur's power as a rallying point for the rebellion
- Glendower as the Welsh Renaissance man, a fierce Druid with a penchant for poetry and music
- Shakespeare's satirical demonstration of the chivalric love between Lady Mortimer and Mortimer versus the more down-to-earth, playful relationship between Lady Percy and Hotspur
- Worcester as the most shrewd politician in the rebel camp
- The directorial challenge of demonstrating the power and threat of the rebels while simultaneously showing the disorder and squabbling within the rebellion
- Shakespeare and the dangers of dividing a kingdom
- The majority of the scene between Henry IV and Hal as an explanation of the play Richard II “previously on…”
- Henry's mistake is that he equates celebrity that Richard II cultivated with the populism that Hal cultivates
- The final straw for Hal is when Henry IV predicts that Hal will join rebel forces as a traitor
- Hal going between disbelief at the power of rumor to anger and grief at the effect it has upon his father
- Hal’s vow and the disturbing violence of his promise, perhaps our first glimpse of the power of the future Henry V
- The second tavern scene has a much more melancholic tone than the first one, Falstaff is listless and bored until Hal comes back to the tavern
- The wonderful confusion and sassiness of Mistress Quickly and her perpetual defensiveness
Matthew MacFadyen as Prince Hal and Michael Gambon as Falstaff in National Theatre’s production in 2005.