The Accessible Henry VI: A New Adaptation
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Rio, Melanie
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Dramatic Art
- Abstract
- In recent decades (i. e., in the last fifty years or so), a considerable number of enterprising theatres have risen to the challenge presented by the problematic Henry VI plays. In order to avoid fragmenting the plot, a number of companies have chosen to mount all three plays at once. Parts 1, 2, and 3 have been presented in rotating repertory, have been condensed into two plays, and have undergone a number of creative cuts in order to be marketable to a theatre-going audience. However, these mammoth productions, most often mounted by theatrical giants such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, are both expensive to produce and taxing for an audience to watch, generally being (in total) much longer than “the norm of two or three hours” which “has been one of the most durable conventions of the Western theater”4 since the days of Shakespeare himself. These “theatrical marathons”5 provide a unique experience, but their demands are daunting, and it is only an exceptionally well-staffed and well-funded theatre that may even consider producing one in the first place. Unfortunately, these requirements – demanding of audience and company alike – leave a wide gap in the viewership of the Henry VI trilogy. There are two principal groups which, because of the limitations of the plays in their current, various forms, are denied access to them: companies with a fraction of the RSC’s budget and resources, and viewers unwilling or unable to sit through six to nine hours of theatre. The Henry VI cycle will remain predominantly inaccessible until an adaptation of more reasonable length and production requirements is available. This is the ultimate goal of the ‘accessible’ Henry VI: to condense all three parts of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy into one play, which can be performed in the same amount of time, using the same amount of resources, as any of Shakespeare’s other individual works. There is, of course, an accompanying caveat: one must endeavor to make the Henry VI trilogy more widely performable and accessible without compromising the integrity of the original works. The Henry VI plays are certainly worth performing, and though it presents a considerable challenge, I believe it is possible to condense them in such a way that the merits of the works are preserved, while some of the more problematic elements are reduced or removed. This endeavor presents, in fact, a unique opportunity: to exhibit the most exemplary aspects of the Henry VI plays and create a more performable script which does not suffer from the same shortcomings responsible for the plays’ original fall from popularity. It is a challenging project, to be sure, but when one considers the possibility of a free-standing, readily operative Henry VI, the risk of wasted time and effort seems small by comparison.
- Date of publication
- spring 2014
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Kable, Gregory
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 49
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This work has no parents.
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2014_Rio_1.pdf | 2019-05-18 | Public | Download |