Shakespeare’s Sequels: Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V.Research Assistant Hailey Bachrach looks a

Shakespeare’s Sequels: Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V.Research Assistant Hailey Bachrach looks at why you don’t need to know English monarchical history to have a good time at one of Shakespeare’s History plays. In this blog she looks at Henry IV Part 1. Richard II ends with a promise: the newly crowned King Henry IV vows to take apilgrimage to Jerusalem, to atone for his role in the murder of King Richard. Acouple years later, Shakespeare decided to follow up on King Henry IV’s reign,opening Henry IV Part 1 with areiteration of this promise. He brings back a cast of characters that those whohave seen Richard II will recognise:Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV; the Earl of Northumberland; andNorthumberland’s son, whose fervour in battle has now earned him the nicknameHotspur—which is also the alternate title we’ve given the play.So the two plays aredefinitely linked… but they’re also very capable of standing alone. In fact, inearly attempts to cut down the play, co-directors Federay Holmes and Sarah Beditried to remove as much of the backstory relating to Richard II from the script as they could, for the sake of clarity,and recognizing that not everyone in our audiences will have seen Richard II. As rehearsals went on,however, we found that it was almost impossible not to add those lines andreferences back in. One of the fundamental questions of Hotspur is whether the present can ever really make a clean breakfrom the past… so it makes sense that the characters can’t stop reminiscingabout it.However, thisdefinitely doesn’t mean that you need to have seen Richard II in order to understand Hotspur (or Henry IV Part Oneto understand Part Two, for thatmatter). Hotspur develops its owncharacters and its own versions of past events. One conspicuous example is Northumberland’sbrother, the Earl of Worcester, who is frequently referenced in Richard II, but never seen in that play.In Hotspur, he is treated as a centralconspirator, and characters describe him as if he was present for events that Richard II does not depict him as aparticipant in.This slight disconnectcan help us understand how early modern writers and audiences may have approachedthe idea of sequels. Multi-part plays, especially those based on history ormythology, were very popular during the 1590s. However, this wasn’t the onlyway audiences experienced sequential historical narratives. As I discussed in my previous post, audiences could also watch multiple versionsof the same historical figure’s life in different plays by different companies,or even by different writers for the same company. When we remember this, thenot-quite-seamless nature of Shakespeare’s sequels begins to make a lot ofsense. People were accustomed to seeing multiple ‘takes’ on a single set ofhistorical figures and events. Serial history plays feel less like a box set ora TV drama and more like big superhero movies, where different writers offerslightly different takes on characters and events that all coalesce into acollective mythology rather than a single linear storyline.Hotspur is therefore a continuation of Shakespeare’s own play, but also acontinuation of the broader mythology of Henry IV, the king who usurped hiscrown. The play introduces another well-known figure, the future Henry V, whowas famous for his reckless, irresponsible youth and surprise transformationinto an adept military commander and widely-admired king. Both of these culturallegacies are as important to the play’s background as any of the specificevents of Shakespeare’s Richard II.This naturally raisesthe question of whether the same principle applies to Shakespeare’s otherhistory plays. Do you need to see the histories we’ll be performing thissummer—Henry IV Part One and Two and Henry V—in that order? We think that you don’t. That’s one reasonwhy we’ve given them new individual names: Hotspur,Falstaff, and Harry England. Aswith Richard II, all three plays bothdo and do not follow directly on from one another. Time moves forward acrossthe plays, and they reference past events. But they also slightly resetthemselves, giving the characters the chance to re-enact the story arc they’rebest known for. In all three, Prince Hal must labour to convince the world thathe’s better than his reputation; in both Hotspurand Falstaff, King Henry must grapple anew with his guilt overthe crown and his mistrust of the son who will inherit it. In Falstaff, Falstaff remembers an eventthat actually took place in a completely different play about the youth ofHenry V, while King Henry IV and one of his lords reminisce about a scene from Richard II for which neither werepresent. This is a perfect example of the complex ways in which early modern ‘sequels’ relate to one anotherand to other plays about the same characters, the way they exist in sequenceand in parallel at the same time. The order that you see our productions inwill change your understanding of each play, but the plays are designed towithstand being seen in any order, with any level of prior knowledge of thecharacters and events they depict.In short, if you lovedRichard II, come join us to see thenext chapter in the story of Bolingbroke, Northumberland, and Harry Percy. Andif you missed it, choose any play you like and embark on an entirely newadventure this summer.Henry IV Part 1 opens on 23 April. Henry IV Part 2 opens on 25 April and Henry V opens on 30 April. Photography by Pete Le May  -- source link

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