by: Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Three kings. Three impeccably pressed suits. In director Ivo van Hove’s (Antigone, 2015 Next Wave; Angels in America, 2014 Next Wave) clever merging of the plays Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II & III, and Richard III, three Bardian power players enter the fluorescent-lit corridors of the present. On a set divided between modern war chamber and its antiseptic back rooms, autocrats debate national security over Scotch while handheld cameras pry into their drug-fueled binges behind the scenes. Soliloquies turn into media spectacles as Van Hove offers this nuanced character study of Shakespeare’s volatile kings, each tasked with making big decisions with egos, and lives, at stake.
