HENRY VI | STAGE REVIEW
Wales Millennium Centre
Mon 01-Sat 20 Feb
Like shadows of ourselves, we rise to the very top of the WMC. Like unbidden guests, we pass through the slick glass-and-steel facade to a warren of rough back corridors, climb to The Roof Void and settle among the cold steel of the scaffolding and air vents. And as we watch the players circle the eerie space, it becomes clear that Yvonne Murphy’s all-female production of Henry VI will be no easy play.
We open to Hannah O’Leary’s Henry suspended acrobatically, almost ethereally, above us. She seems barely to touch the ground during these early stages, perched instead on elevated scaffolds, or wrapped in aerial silks, which are pulled back and forth by her courtiers (self-interested puppeteers to this troubled child king). Henry, in turn, twists away, sometimes falling dramatically to earth as her protectors plot and scheme beneath her.
Then, as their bubbling discontent erupts into war, the king’s feet finally find the ground, and the play’s pace picks up. We chase our players across the space from scene to frantic scene, as plumes of red and white rose petals cascade to the floor – Plantagenet and Yorkist blood spilling across the dust (made, but for its colour, of the same stuff) – and we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a brutal divide.
And here is where condensing three plays into one becomes most potent, as we cycle through characters rapidly, their introductions and deaths seeming to footnote almost every scene. The effect is slightly jarring, but manages also, somewhat, to mine a deeper truth. This civil war is good for no-one and bad for all, we realise, as we watch heroes and villains alike arrive and disappear, each meeting equally lamentable ends.
The tightly-wound performances keep the tension throughout, from Louise Collins’s kinetic Warwick to Lizzie Winkler’s twisted Gloucester (contorting, slowly, into the notorious malcontent of Richard III), and it’s the strength of all the performances that prove key to keeping this ambitious adaptation on track. Ultimately, spectacularly, the play pays off. Two qualifiers, though, before you attend: wear comfy shoes, and learn a little of the history – you’ll need both to keep up with the action.
words BILL KNOWLES
Tickets £12, Info: www.wmc.org.uk