First, I would like to express my gratitude that the National Asian American Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Public Theater, is doing Henry VI at all.  Productions of this trilogy are rare in North America despite its high literary pedigree (it’s by Shakespeare), its chronological significance (it was his first history), and its novelty (it features Joan of Arc and the first appearance of the hunchbacked Richard of Gloucester).  The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, for example, has only produced it three times in its seventy-three-year history (in 1966, 1980, and 2020), the least of all his works except The Two Noble Kinsmen (once, in 2002) and tied with Troilus and Cressida (1963, 1987, and 2003).  For Shakespearean completists, Henry VI is one of the hardest to find.

Unfortunately, this production, presented in two parts, has little to offer besides its rarity.  The direction by Stephen Brown-Fried (who also adapted) is sluggish, lacking in drive or energy.  The scenic design by dots is minimal—black confetti litter the floor.  The costumes, designed by threeASFOUR, are almost all both black and white with occasional accents of red, a striking (and confusing) choice for a play with a series of rival kings and armies.  The many decapitations are represented by small pieces of noosed rope.  There is no sense of scale, and the cumulative effect is monotonous, as clear distinctions are not drawn between scenes and factions and characters.  I was also disappointed that one of the plays’ weirdest moments, when Joan of Arc attempts to evade immolation by claiming she is pregnant, and then naming a series of men as the father, was cut.

Still, there are a few successful moments, most of them in the second part.  Jack Cade (Orville Mendoza), the leader of a populist revolt, brings a much-needed jolt of energy into the action.  Interrogating a clerk, he asks, “Dost thou use to write thy name or hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest plain-dealing man?”  The flip-flopping of Clarence (Anna Ishida), friend then enemy then friend to Henry (Jon Norman Schneider), is also staged to good comic effect.

In the program notes, Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director at the Public Theater, writes, “Henry VI feels like a new play because you almost certainly haven’t seen it before … when you hear Jack Cade’s populist uprising, you can’t believe it was written over 400 years ago and isn’t a transcript of the January 6 uprising.”  The second claim is never borne out in the production, and the revival needs greater justification, a clearer purpose, than the first.

Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts runs through July 19th at the Newman Theater.  425 Lafayette Street  New York, NY.  Part One runs 3 hours with one intermission. Part Two runs 2 hours 40 minutes with one intermission. Photograph by HanJie Chow.