Player Kings review: a 'luxurious feast' of theatre
Ian McKellen offers a 'richly complex' performance that deserves to be seen

Recalling Ralph Richardson's famed performance as Sir John Falstaff in a 1945 production at the Old Vic, Kenneth Tynan wrote that it had been "too rich and many-sided to be crammed into a single word". I felt the same about Ian McKellen's Falstaff in this slick, modern-dress adaptation of Henry IV Parts I & II, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian.
Donning a fatsuit to play Shakespeare's antihero for the first time, aged 84, McKellen gives us a Falstaff who is "tragic almost from the start": a "pub drunk, and in soiled shirt and braces"; a "wheeler-dealer, wheezing and snorting, adenoidal and dyspeptic". Rather than a "carnivalesque" figure, this Falstaff is a "carnival grotesque": it's a "radically moving" and "richly complex" performance that deserves to be seen.
Director Robert Icke is known for his "thrilling reinventions or rewrites of classics", said Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard. For this condensation of the two plays, which runs to over three hours, he has "neatly" streamlined the raucous and violent power struggles of Part I, and pruned Part II of some (but perhaps not enough) of its "waffling jokes and rueful diminuendo". What emerges is a "luxurious feast" of theatre that shows how the plays still speak to our times, by asking "what it means to be a man and a monarch, and whether we should dedicate our lives to duty or pleasure".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
McKellen is "magnificent", said Sarah Hemming in the FT. Toheeb Jimoh is excellent, too, as Prince Hal, combining "youthful zest" with a ruthless streak and a stubborn refusal to face his future. And there are several "wonderful" supporting turns, not least from Clare Perkins as a fierce, funny Mistress Quickly. But while Icke's staging has a "vivid immediacy", his cuts come at a cost: the grievances of the rebels are not always easy to follow, and "some of the comic warmth" is lost from the second half.
It makes the production less engaging than it might be, said Clive Davis in The Times. But whenever McKellen is onstage, this adaptation comes "bustling to life".
Noël Coward Theatre, London WC2 (0344-482 5151). Until 22 June, then touring.
Sign up to the Culture & Life newsletter for reviews and recommendations
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Mustardy beans and hazelnuts recipe
The Week Recommends Nod to French classic offers zingy, fresh taste
-
Susie Dent picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The lexicographer and etymologist shares works by Jane Goodall, Noel Streatfeild and Madeleine Pelling
-
6 incredible homes under $1 million
Feature Featuring a home in the National Historic Landmark District of Virginia and a renovated mid-century modern house in Washington
-
The Harder They Come: ‘triumphant’ adaptation of cinema classic
The Week Recommends ‘Uniformly excellent’ cast follow an aspiring musician facing the ‘corruption’ of Kingston, Jamaica
-
House of Guinness: ‘rip-roaring’ Dublin brewing dynasty period drama
The Week Recommends The Irish series mixes the family tangles of ‘Downton’ and ‘Succession’ for a ‘dark’ and ‘quaffable’ watch
-
Dead of Winter: a ‘kick-ass’ hostage thriller
The Week Recommends Emma Thompson plays against type in suspenseful Minnesota-set hair-raiser ‘ringing with gunshots’
-
A Booker shortlist for grown-ups?
Talking Point Dominated by middle-aged authors, this year’s list is a return to ‘good old-fashioned literary fiction’
-
Fractured France: an ‘informative and funny’ enquiry
The Week Recommends Andrew Hussey's work is a blend of ‘memoir, travelogue and personal confession’