The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A slight but still very funny play – I laughed out loud a few times while reading which I can't say I've done for other comedies of the period. It indulges in quite sadistic treatment of Falstaff, which fans of the character from the Henry IV plays might find unsettling. Here he takes on a similar role to that of Malvolio in Twelfth Night – a gull who is mercilessly tortured for his (financially-motivated) letchery. The extent to which Falstaff is pilloried for offending middle class propriety might suggest that Shakespeare wanted to moderate the sympathy we might feel towards him in his histories. Falstaff's riots are a source of fun, but they must ultimately be contained and repressed for civilised life to continue. The stars of the show here are the wives who skillfully weave their plots around the hapless men around them – their merriment is not a sign of loose morals but a tool of moral edification.

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King Henry V

King Henry V by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A patriotic pageant which the last 100 years of commentary – understandably uncomfortable with imperialism and monarchical government – has tried to complicate. The best and most machiavellian explanation for the unprovoked invasion in this play is actually found in the Henry IV Part 2, where the dying king urges his son to go on foreign wars of conquest in order to unite a fractious kingdom. Military success will wash away the sin of usurpation.

Henry V is a consumate politician, able to deploy the common touch he learned while carousing in his youth to motivate his followers. The coldness with which he treats his dissipated former associates may mar his reputation among the admirers of Falstaff (who dies off-stage of a broken heart), but reinforces the point that upon becoming King, Henry has to move on to bigger things than drinking and whoring and actually act the part of King. Richard II was also a good actor, but Henry V (the character if not the play) is a success because he knows which part to play.

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King Henry IV, Part 2

King Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An uneven play probably written to cash in on the popularity of Falstaff, recycling scenes that were cut from Henry IV before it became part one, and perhaps also using some scenes originally intended for Henry V. Inevitably less cohesive, and while Falstaff’s self-interested schemes and the wider political conspiracies rarely intersect, there are patterns between them. The personification of Rumour introduces the play, and the preponderance of false reports dominate the plot, not least Falstaff’s reputation for heroism at the Battle of Shrewsbury – a theme that casts doubt on the overall project of narrative history. Falstaff is an irresponsible rogue, but the political machinations of the king and the prince are also somewhat grubby.

The play is at its most interesting in how Henry IV reflects on his usurpation, revealing the thinking that was denied to the audience in Richard II. Bolingbroke’s rise was carefully stage-managed, much like the swift reformation of Prince Henry when he inherits the crown. Despite their antagonism, father and son are shown to be master manipulators, and remarkably alike. Falstaff can only be his irrepressible self, his lies are so outrageous they are immediately seen through. That simplicity might be what was so attractive to the Prince. But his comedic, anti-historical spirit must be banished at the end for the history to continue.

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King Henry IV, Part 1

King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am unfortunately immune to Falstaff’s charms, which makes this difficult to appreciate. Prince Hal’s calculating attitude to his own dissolution is more interesting, and the extent to which it is a rationalisation or justification for his preferences can be brought out in performance. His affection for Falstaff lives off the page – the actual lines are a litany of fat jokes that seem mean-spirited, borne out by his callow rejection of this alternate father-figure at the end.

Hal’s equivocal attitude is authentically Shakespearian, but so is Falstaff’s disreputable behaviour. On the battlefield, the cowardly knight satirises the ideals of chivalry and honour, and the broader political system they support. But that comes at the same time as he leads over 300 poor people to their deaths before running away, which feels morally outrageous. Reading Falstaff as Shakespeare’s argument for the joys of eating and drinking as opposed to fighting and conspiring is a simplification, and Shakespeare is never that clear cut. Hal abandoning Eastcheap for the demands of kingship is as finely-balanced a dramatic finale as the deposition of Richard II. Shakespeare doesn’t show us who’s right, and that’s what makes the work live on.

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Dusk

I don't have much experience with the canonical 1990s shooters this is based on – your Dooms and Quakes – but it feels like this takes what made those games special and perfects it. You move quickly, the guns are loud, and the level design is stellar. The creators were taking ideas from Half-Life and Deus Ex as well as more cartoony keycard-based shooters, and one of the joys of the game is uncovering secrets that give you little power-ups. Exploration and attention is rewarded, and can give you a leg-up in encounters.

Dusk never gets tiring – it's always bringing something new to the table. In Episode 2 you start to see levels reconfigure. By Episode 3 you can swich the direction of gravity. Only in the last two missions was I ready for it to be over – there's a big combat arena where you face every enemy in the game in waves, and then two quite challenging boss fights. I dialled the difficulty down to get through it, and still had fun blasting away. 

King Richard II

King Richard II by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is Shakespeare’s masterclass in portraying controversial political material in such a finely balanced way as to avoid controversy – he was the only playwright of his time to avoid tussles with the law. This for me is a more successful staging of a regicide than Julius Caesar, because the charismatic ruler remains on stage until the end, and indulges in ever more fantastic self-pitying flights of fancy. Richard is a bad king and a great poet. In his heart of hearts he probably knows it, which is why he is weirdly eager to give up his title and his responsibilities. Shakespeare’s point (if he has one) may be that poetry is ultimately an easier vocation than politics.

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Edward II

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This struck me as structurally similar to Doctor Faustus – the subject of the play indulges in heterodox pleasures and is ultimately doomed by overplaying his hand. Substitute dalliances with devils to attain forbidden power and knowledge for dalliances with favourites of low birth and the same sex. Edward II like Doctor Faustus wants to live deliciously, and Marlowe clearly sympathises with that libertine spirit even while ensuring it is violently crushed at the end. Tragedy demands the reassertion of traditional religious, sexual and social norms. The sinners are punished and the audience should leave the theatre feeling righteous, except Marlowe never quite purges his (and our) admiration for the radicalism of his tragic heroes. The poet is of the Devil’s party, and Marlowe certainly knew it.

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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Definitely a play of two halves, the second of which doesn't match the dramatic interest of the first. Basically everything after Mark Anthony's rhetorical showstopper with Caesar's body is quite dull. I find Brutus and Cassius's long quarrel scene odd and their subsequent deaths bathetic. Shakespeare does a good job balancing the different viewpoints, although I suspect that the conspirators' cries of liberty and enfranchisement would appear more suspect to an Elizabethan audience than they do now. Caesar's murder is essentially a regicide that unleashes a civil war, and eventually results in Octavian as emperor anyway, so while Brutus may have been high-minded he was certainly (and quite literally) misguided. The influence of rhetoric on politics is ultimately what the play is about – the tribunes chiding the mechanicals at the start, then Cassius drawing out Brutus as the figurehead for the conspiracy, and climaxing with Mark Antony's playing the mob like a fiddle. The latter half loses that thread a bit, which is why this reputedly balanced play feels lopsided to me.

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Volpone

Volpone by Ben;Brockbank Jonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A play that’s better performed than read. On the page you can easily lose track of the disguises and tricks being played on the different gulls, which on the stage would be clear to see. This is nonetheless very funny, with the pace and lightness of a screwball comedy, despite the somewhat disturbing themes of rape and torture it touches on. Volpone and Mosca are delighted by their own ingenious dramaturgy, and you can sense Ben Jonson’s own satisfaction with his craft shine through his protagonists.

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