Following the death of Henry V, England is plunged into decades of chaos, culminating in the War of the Roses as feuding families vie for the throne.

I thought NAATCO did a really great job realizing - frankly, making watchable at all - this early-career Shakespeare. Remounted production from 2018.

The play tries to capture too much history at once and the result is sprawling and amorphous. There are way too many characters, tons of dry political and tactical maneuvering, and so many battle scenes. Important things - often, major character deaths - happen off-stage, and then what actually happens on the stage feels awfully abrupt.

NAATCO keeps it light by asking you to keep track of the factions rather than their principals. It’s color-coded: the French are in white, the Irish add a tan layer, the English a black one. During War of the Roses sequences, the English are further subdivided with white and red roses pinned to their chests. Instead of trying to solve the play’s problems, they just embrace it for what it is

The actors are all great. Cool lighting. Great choreo. I need to go back to sleep

It would be cool to see them cap this off with their take on Richard III (the direct sequel) - I haven’t checked back but I imagine they might very well have produced that at some point in the last 8 years since the original production