Hal: life, eh, Jack, what goes up must come down... #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Here's a cheeky cheerful Prince Hal for a wet Friday morning: Tom Hiddleston in The Hollow Crown, 2012.

Hal: life, eh, Jack, what goes up must come down... #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Here's a cheeky cheerful Prince Hal for a wet Friday morning: Tom Hiddleston in The Hollow Crown, 2012.
Falstaff: we are DIANA'S FORESTERS! #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Part of Falstaff's appeal is the conjunction of his disreputable appearance with his brilliant rhetoric (model for a certain type of Englishman?)
Michael Gambon @nationaltheatre.org.uk 2005
Falstaff: nocturnal theft, graceful greasy puns &, when you're king, Hal #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Hal (William Houston) & Falstaff (Desmond Barrit) @the-rsc.bsky.social 2000, dir. Michael Attenborough. Lots of lovely felted wool in Kandis Cook's costumes
Falstaff: what's the time? Hal: SERIOUSLY? #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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A first outing for Falstaff and Hal, and for this production: Falstaff (the great Antony Sher) and Hal (Alex Hassell) in the 2014 @the-rsc.bsky.social Henry IV, dir. Greg Doran.
And that's the exposition done; MANY QUESTIONS... #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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The poster for the 1964 @the-rsc.bsky.social Henry IV & the tomb on which it's based. Henry is the only monarch buried in Canterbury Cathedral, with his 2nd wife Joan of Navarre
Henry: maybe Hotspur & Hal were switched at birth? #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Richard Coyle as King Henry in Player Kings 2024: immaculate dress uniform (Marshal of the Royal Air Force) right down to the medals, a year after the coronation of Charles III.
King Henry: Hotspur is brilliant; my son Harry, though? Not so much #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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John Gielgud as King Henry in Chimes at Midnight (1965), the combined Henry IV dir. Orson Welles. It creaks, now, but the cinematography is amazing.
King Henry: Hotspur's done well for himself; Westmorland: indeed #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Poster for the 2005 @nationaltheatre.org.uk Henry IV: David Bradley (Henry, L), Michael Gambon (Falstaff, C) & Matthew Macfadyen (Hal, R). What about HOTSPUR?
King Henry: I know all this; HOTSPUR won #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Another image from the Donmar Henry IV, dir. Phyllida Lloyd 2014. Jade Anouka (R) as Hotspur, Cynthia Erivo (!) as Douglas. (they join forces later, here sparring together) 📸Helen Maybanks
Westmorland: big battle! don't know who won? #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
One of the most influential recent Henry IVs: dir. Phyllida Lloyd @donmarwarehouse.bsky.social, first in 2014, within the frame of a women's prison. Jade Anouka, centre, as HOTSPUR.
Unfortunately, sire, it's THE NORTH too #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Henry IV opened the Barbican in 1982, dir. Trevor Nunn. This is the poster, reimagining the Agas map of late C16 London, in the rough shape of the British Isles. Maps matter in this play.
Westmorland: bad news, sire, it's the Welsh... #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
James Laurenson as Westmorland in the Hollow Crown 2012. Laurenson (1940-2024) was a Kiwi actor whose student acting career was shaped by Ngaio Marsh.
King Henry: can I get updates from regional reps re crusade readiness? #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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A first outing for Jeremy Irons as Henry in the BBC's Hollow Crown (2012) & as Richard II @the-rsc.bsky.social 1986. Strong Plantagenet family resemblance.
King Henry: I thought we'd have a HOLY war now? #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Jasper Britton as Henry in the opening scene of 1 Henry IV @the-rsc.bsky.social 2014, its design (des. Stephen Brimson Lewis) emphasising the religious context & language here.
King Henry: that's it, no more civil war! #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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David Troughton (he'd also played Bolingbroke to Sam West's Richard II) as King Henry in the 2000 @the-rsc.bsky.social Henry IV, dir. Michael Attenborough, des. Kandis Cook, Es Devlin.
And so it begins: breathing space? 1 Henry IV #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare
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Here's Richard Coyle as King Henry IV in Player Kings, the 2024 composite version of 1+2 Henry by Rob Icke.
#ProdigalPrince my new #SlowShakespeare blog, reading 1 Henry IV every day, around 10 lines at a time, starts TOMORROW, 1 October! Here's one of my favourite Hals (and actors): Geoffrey Streatfeild @the-rsc.bsky.social 2007-8, with David Warner as Falstaff.
Thanks to Jen our fab computer officer @cam-english-fac.bsky.social all my #SlowShakespeare blogs are back here www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... as 'projects' #StarCrossed #StormTossed #DaggerDrawn #KingedUnkinged #2Dudes1Dog #BurningBarge #InkyCloak #MoonMad. #ProdigalPrince begins 1 October!
Just to say that YES I will be doing another #SlowShakespeare & in the absence of STRENUOUS REPRESENTATIONS to the contrary it'll be 1 Henry IV #ProdigalPrince but we've just got a new faculty website so ALL blogs are *temporarily* inaccessible. Hoping to have them back soon & to start on 1 October!
Yelling into the void on a sunny September Sunday afternoon: so, shall I do YET ANOTHER #SlowShakespeare daily blog? So far: R&J, Tempest, Macb, 2Gents, A&C, RII, Hamlet, Dream. Suggestions??
(Artist's impression of my process, not to scale)