Tricky Dick: WARS OF THE ROSES: HENRY VI & RICHARD III

Shakespeare's earliest history plays have been enjoying a well-deserved resurgence in popularity recently, with productions in repertory or condensed scripts becoming all the rage in New York City for the past several years.  Thank The Hollow Crown series, perhaps, for intriguing American audiences with Shakespeare's historical octology, which culminates chronologically with the fall of saintly King Henry VI, and the ascension of that murderous hunchback, King Richard III.

What some may not know, however, is that Tricky Dick's story does not begin with his titular play, nor with winters of discontent, but rather with Henry VI, Parts 2 & 3, where Richard, son of the usurping Duke of York ascends from his father's ill-fated reign to cut a swathe through England - including Richard III's murder of King Henry VI himself.

Austin Pendleton, intrigued by tracing the rise of Richard from son of a usurping king to being a usurping king himself, has woven together highlights from all three plays into one 2.5 hour epic, featuring Matt de Rogatis as Richard III, and Pendleton himself as Henry VI.

The cast is large, the concept Brechtian - but somehow Wars of the Roses never quite gets off the ground.

The two main issues are the lack of focus, which is then impeded by uneven acting throughout.  When the play is hyper-stylized, the show works wonderfully well: such as the Mayor of London scene being played without a Mayor of London and delivered straight to the audience, or the final battle which weaves together with Richard III's fatal dream, bringing on the ghosts of those he's slain speaking their own lines from his soliloquy, and ending brilliantly in blackout calling out his kingdom for a horse.

Unfortunately, much of the remainder of the play abandons actors on the stage to varying degrees of success, as they're asked to embody the text with almost no movement whatsoever.  Some actors rise brilliantly to the occasion: Pete McElligott positively shines as Clarence, Richard's middle brother, making Clarence's overly long death speech nuanced and necessary.  He even manages to make his own backstory - left out of this cut of the play - still intelligble.  While his death scene proper, he fills by turns with gallows humor and broken eyes.  Greg Pragel, also doubling as Fight Choreographer and Clifford, is particularly good as Buckingham - Richard's crony and chief strategist - playing him as an uptight, smiling, smiling damned villain fighting against his own vulnerable humanity in a desperate and futile bid to stay alive in Richard's bloody court.  Joanna Leister as Queen Elizabeth - here given her character's full arc from widow importuned by a King, through to last woman standing in defiance of kings - is by turns witty and fierce, milking even overly long scenes for every pointed barb.  Watching her, you believe that this is a woman who will survive a bloodbath, even as she's forced to bear the blood of her children on her hands.  It's thrilling.

As for our kings, Pendleton gives a convincing Henry VI - a role that suits his mild-mannered and thoughtful delivery.  Even if, somehow, in this cut of the play Henry feels even more extraneous to his parts of the show than he usually does.  Matt de Rogatis gives a credible Richard III, easing into his version of Tricky Dick as the play progresses and he allows Richard's manic lust for power to dominate.  However, in some of the earlier parts of the show, de Rogatis loses himself in his attempt to craft an arc.  Shakspeare's Richard - whether he's the son of York, Duke of Gloucester, or murderous monarch - is never anything but wicked.  So the motion against text is noticeable.  De Rogatis also shines more in his dialogue scenes than in his monologues - which is a difficult position since, like Iago, Richard is a character of several soliloquies.  Mention should be given to Michael Villastrigo as King Edward, Richard's elder brother.  Although the focus is not on him, Villastrigo still manages to convey his character's impressive if truncated arc, particularly proving himself in the wooing of the future Queen Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, while listening to the play, I was struck with the simple fact that, at their heart, these plays are very early Shakespeare.  That means, uncut, the young playwright relies far too much on extremely long speeches and soliloquies, or even longer scenes that begin repeating themselves half-way through their own arguments.  The fact that I had never noticed this before may be due to the quality of actor I've had the pleasure of seeing in these roles before - but also to the fact that every production I've seen of any of the history plays employs judicious to drastic editorializing.  While, therefore, it was interesting to see several scenes play out in their First Folio entirety, the fact that even the best of the actors on stage struggled to keep the audience's attention once we returned to the same argument for a second or third time, means that this play - which is predicated on giving us the "good parts version" of the Richard story - could have used significantly more verbal pruning.

It is also worth noting, particularly in a post-#MeToo world and in the multi-cultural heart of New York City, that this cast - 15 people in total - was not only male-heavy, but except for one minor actor, entirely Caucasian.  Now, obviously, Shakespearean theatre can often bring all the Europeans to the yard, but I would encourage all classical theatre companies working in New York to be cognizant of the bias towards casting a lot of white men.  It is noticed.

The concept of Wars of the Roses is intriguing.  And for those who don't know Shakespeare and who might be looking for a quick primer of who killed whom, Wars of the Roses might just fit the bill.  But for those who love Shakespeare, who remember Sir Ian McKellan's indelible performance, or who've seen multiple variations of the history plays, they might do better to snag tickets to the next time Henry VI and Richard III are playing in rep.  Pass.

The War of the Roses: Henry VI & Richard III by William Shakespeare, directed by Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch now playing at the 123 Bank Street Thatre, NYC, through August 19th.  (Pictured: Matt de Rogatis plays Richard III.  All photos courtesy of Chris Loupos.)

TICKETS: www.proveavillian.com

Greg Pragel and Matt de Rogatis as Buckingham and Richard III.

Matt de Rogatis and Austin Pendleton as Richard III and Henry VI.