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‘Player Kings’ Review: Ian McKellen and Toheeb Jimoh Give Star Turns in a Chilly New Take on Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’
Director Robert Icke's intelligent, austere West End adaptation of "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2" is for the most part, strikingly sour.
Arguably the greatest classical actor of his generation, McKellen’s command of the stage, of language and also, crucially, of silence hold the audience rapt, especially in gleefully self-aggrandizing soliloquies. Invigorating though it is that Icke takes nothing in the play for granted, in this production (unlike in his hugely successful, compellingly rethought “Hamlet” with Andrew Scott), not enough coalesces into a complete vision, particularly in the slacker second half. Lee Curran’s lighting, which has moved between chilly Eastcheap, the crepuscular court and blood-red-drenched battle, suddenly switches to a bright warm glow, as if to say: here lies comedy.
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