Henry IV

My wife and I had a rare escape to the Shakespeare Theatre today, where we saw a very strong peformance of perennial favorite Henry IV pt. 1. Ted van Greithuysen, in a departure from his usual serious roles, played Falstaff; giving the fat knight a little more of an air of sophistication than usual, to great effect in such lines as "Banish not Falstaff thy Harry's company." One gets the sense from van Greithuysen's performance that Falstaff has a sense of what the future holds. Floyd King, whose usual line is clowns, fools, and buffoons, played Owen Glendower pretty straight, relying on Glendower's bizarre and pretentious mysticism to create its own comic effect. Finally, Andrew Long created a vigorous Hotspur with a biting tongue, and threatened to steal each scene he was in. Overall, the tavern scenes were most effective, whereas the fight scenes came across as perfunctory.