Day 20: Henry IV, part ii, by William Shakespeare (BBC Hollow Crown adaptation)

Wrapping up the week where it started, with part two of Henry IV. As a play, the second installment feels rather more disjointed than the first, in particular Falstaff's thread of the story seems to get a lot of airtime when it's clear from the start Hal is already distancing himself from him. That does set up the final scene to be all the more heartbreaking, which is presumably the point. Prince John being given some very public authority seems to pass almost entirely unremarked by anyone involved - though in the interviews it's been hinted that some lines were cut in the name of timing for these adaptations and I wonder if that particular battlefield scene is explained any more deeply in the complete text. I certainly intend to come back and read these plays later in the year.

After yesterday's revalation of Imogen as a female role I can relate to, and now watching this, I realise I've been unfair in my assessment. The histories (particularly those covered by the Hollow Crown series) are of necessity "manly" plays, dealing with succession and war and suitably dutiful women (and occasional whores). In the same way, the romantic comedy plays are stories specifically about falling in and out of love and the female roles are mostly going to be primarily written for someone else to spurn, fall for or whatever. Anything we see of those women is probably going to be related to those storylines (though, I still maintain he's inherantly distrusting of women and is convinced we're all plotting to kill at least one person at any given time).

The deeper into this project I get, the more I wonder at how much I hated English classes at school. I'm finding myself totally drawn in to the language, remembering experiences, and seeing the world a little differently every day. And maybe that's why - most of the voices in Shakespeare are adults, with the experience of all those deep and complicated feelings like grief, pride, duty, honour - of which, when I was a kid, I had no real understanding. Even romantic love was something I didn't really experience myself until my mid teens. (That last was one of the many sticking points with the much-maligned English Teacher - she seemed to think everything in literature pretty much ever written was about sex - something that made me very uncomfortable when it was discussed in class when I was 12). And it's not just Shakespeare - pretty much every play draws on that experience and emotional maturity that can only really be understood by someone who's at least peripherally experienced something similar. Next week there will be one or two plays apparently written for children, and I'm interested now to see how that lack of emotional language and understanding is adressed.