Ian McKellen's Falstaff thrives in Robert Icke's entertaining remix of the Henry IV plays Shakespeare's plays have ever been meat for masher-uppers, from the bowdlerising Victorians to the modern filmed-theatre cycles of Ivo Van Hove. And Sir John Falstaff, as Orson Welles proved in Chimes at Midnight, can be the star of his very own remix, bestriding three plays and dying offstage in a fourth.Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12AM on April 14, 2024