As William Shakespeare shows, alliances make and alliances break. Although a coalition has toppled Richard II, people are now not content with the new King Henry IV. Whether the rebels have right on their side is doubtful – it is in the nature of rebellion to seek grievance – but Henry is not the man to brook dissent.
In Henry IV Part One, the king’s son, Hal, meanwhile, is off drinking and whoring. His alliance with Falstaff – his avoidance of responsibilities – is a worry to is father who wishes his heir could impress in battle like Hotspur, the son of his former associate, Northumberland. Hal will need to ditch his friend in order to assume his rightful position.
Comedy and politics themselves have an uneasy alliance in Henry IV. There is all this serious stuff – should the realm be governed by conflict or by conciliation? But there are also the antics of Falstaff.
The Globe resolves this conflict by giving Henry IV to us in true Elizabethan style – not just with authentic costumes and emblems, but also in song, music and dance. Mummers perform before both parts and also after both intervals. I’m not sure whether cows or sheep ever crossed the yard in Shakespeare’s day, but they do here in part two.
After a rather slow start – Hal (Jamie Parker) is a bit too detached for my taste – the play begins to engross. Hotspur is determined to make a name for himself, while Hal is dedicated to having fun at Falstaff’s expense. There is a particularly strong performance by Sean Kearns as Owen Glendower. As Jamie Parker becomes stronger, Hotspur (Sam Crane) seems to lose much of his force. Hotspur rightly should be immature – someone who longs only for the prize of military victory. However, here he sounds too comic – and this dissipates the menace he ought to display.
Part Two has the losers pondering their next move. In a powerful speech by Lorna Stuart as the widowed Lady Percy, Northumberland is chided for abandoning his son. Yet the balance between comedy and politics – which is so well maintained in part one – veers towards playing for a laugh in the second instalment. In Part One, for instance, Falstaff recruits for the army off-stage, but subsequently we are shown how the recruitment drive takes place, the (low) calibre of the men and the unfairness of the selection.
While lacking the tension of the Henry IV Part One, Part Two is still very entertaining. The recruitment drive may be holding up the action but, like the play-within-the-play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is plenty of fine acting to enjoy. Central to both parts is Falstaff – and Roger Allam has got the rogue just right. His is not too overweight to be a caricature, but is an active, self-interested drunkard who always seems able to dig himself out of a hole.
This makes his alternative vision of how to behave all the more appealing. Not for him honour, if all honour brings is death. Nor truth, if all truth brings is lies.
Hal does become Henry V and in doing so cruelly ends his friendship with Falstaff. Now he confers with the stern Lord Chief Justice and his wild days are behind him. In Part One, his father announces his intention to raise an army to fight abroad (in the Holy Land). The second part ends with a prediction that Hal will unite the country by invading France. Is that what makes an alliance work?
