An Historical Interlude

At the outset, 100+ posts ago, this was to be a blog about Hamlet.  Even he would admit, though, that there are more things in heaven and earth than his play.  After the Fathom Events broadcast of the Stratford Festival production of King Lear (see 3/8/15 post), I was hooked.  The second installment, King John, was shown on 4/8/15.  Time to broaden the horizons just a bit more.

I knew nothing of the play beforehand.  It was not part of any high school or college discussion that I could recall.  So I did some preliminary research.  The first book I consulted was The Friendly Shakespeare by Norrie Epstein (Penguin Books, 1993).  The outlook was not promising.  The book included only minimal references to the work.  The appraisal: "most unfamiliar and disliked play in the canon" (153) and "isn't all that interesting" (159).  Those dismissals served only to whet my appetite.

The next source was the play itself in The Arden Shakespeare.  The editor's commentary was a bit more helpful.  "John is sometimes a conventionally dignified monarch and at others a mean and treacherous man, realistically portrayed" (E.A.J. Honigmann, 1965, pg. lxvi, note 4).  The introductory essays discussed dichotomies in the play and the question of the hero.  The editor concluded that King John was the"first of Shakespeare's plays which contemporaries thought good enough for plagiarism" (lxxiii).  That was good enough for me.

The production was excellent!  Tom McCamus in the title role was tremendous; at turns likable, laughable, detestable, pitiable, sociopathic.  His was a wonderful stage presence.  The overall acting and direction were very well done, what I am discovering to be a hallmark of Stratford Festival productions.  It is a different play than Hamlet.  The set requires very little decoration.  The two acts were really just two long scenes.  I will say that the dance number that concluded the play (a directorial addition) was a bit odd, but it added some flavor.

For a first foray into King John, I was suitably impressed with the play.  Bah to the so-called "Friendly" interpretation!  My vote for hero of the play is England itself.  The country has to suffer through the reign of King John, war, conflict, murder, religious scandal and yet it does not collapse.  The call to arms at the end certainly serves as a testament to her resolve.

Thanks to Hamlet for leading me on the path to discovering more of Shakespeare's work!  (It even led me to a slight revision to the blog's subtitle.)  While the next post will return to the usual topic, there promise to be other plays ahead.