Henry IV – reviews of 'bold' all-female Shakespeare

What you need to know

A new all-female production of Shakespeare's Henry IV has opened at the Donmar Warehouse theatre, London. Phyllida Lloyd, who created the all-female Julius Caesar set in a women's prison at the Donmar last year, also directs this production.

This abridged Henry IV compresses parts I and II of Shakespeare's tale while focusing mostly on Part I, and like Lloyd's Julius Caesar it is set in a women's prison, where female inmates are putting on a play within the play. Harriet Walter stars in the title role of the aging king, worried about his past misdeeds and despairing of his feckless son Prince Hal's ability to take up his role.

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With Clare Dunne as Hal and Ashley McGuire as Falstaff. Runs until 29 November.

What the critics like

There are all sorts of innovations in Lloyd's adventuresome, compressed and "never dull two-hour mash-up of Henry IV parts I and II", says Dominic Maxwell in The Times. This production reminds us of the possibilities that gender-blind casting can bring - zounds, let's see some more of it.

Phyllida Lloyd has crafted a production that is "grungy and rebellious", bold and strange, says Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard. It's an interpretation that defies taboos and ripples with humour, and with casting that's fresh and intriguingly unlikely.

It's "a fresh, bracingly persuasive staging" of an abridged Henry IV delivered with ringing conviction, says Paul Taylor in The Independent. Lloyd had conjured up witty, tragicomic prison equivalents to the Shakespearean environment including Ashley McGuire's hilariously blokey vest-and-flat-cap Falstaff.

What they don't like

The amateur prison setting is "a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card, which excuses below-par acting (of which there is some)", says Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph. But there's mainly terrific work here and some of it is "frankly unforgettable".