Of the many Henry IV Part 1s I've seen (including four of the previous five at Stratford), I think the finest was the 1965 Stratford production directed by Stuart Burge. I remember the stunning young Canadian actors, all new to me, and now justly famed: Douglas Rain as Prince Hal, Douglas Campbell as Hotspur, Martha Henry as Lady Percy, and the late Tony van Bridge, still my favorite Falstaff. Desmond Heeley's great designs included a long trailing cape for the "wizard" Glendower.
Back at Stratford this season, Heeley laughed when I mentioned that cape made all of feathers and explained that it was "just rags." Truly a wizard, only he could make such magic out of rags.
Richard Monette, who is ending his record 14-year tenure as Stratford's Artistic Director, was a young actor carrying a spear in that production and remembers it fondly. Though there have been two previous productions of this quintessential Shakespearean history play under Monette's helm (one directed by Scott Wentworth who plays the King here), this is Monette's first time directing the play. Predictably, it is a solidly effective, carefully balanced achievement born of long, loving familiarity. Nothing is excessive: the designs are handsome but not showy; the heroics and battle scenes are stirring and convincing; the bawdy comedy is funny without ever pulling the serious subtext out of shape; and the characters are memorably distinctive, and believable.
Well, I did have some trouble with Adam O'Byrne's over-the-top Hotspur. I'm glad I saw O'Byrne's virile, funny young rascal son in London Assurance, because enacting the Hotspur that Monette has described as funny "...a hothead and a bit of a meathead," O'Byrne seemed more drama queen than warrior. But he rises nobly to the climactic fight with Hal.
Scott Wentworth gives King Henry IV more bite than usual, a dark, brooding monarch. James Blendick is funny, endearing and commanding as Falstaff, almost sneaking in the more seriously biting and satirical elements of the beloved buffoon. Unrecognizable in various characterizing get-ups, Barry MacGregor as Bardolph, Tim MacDonald as Peto, Keith Dinicol as Gadshill, and Domini Blythe as Mistress Quickly keep the tavern shenanigans lively and layered.
David Snelgrove is predictably handsome and likable as Hal, building both his playful and difficult "training" toward maturity as the future king. He and Wentworth make the King and Prince's ultimate reconciliation on the battlefield especially touching.
