Aren’t so many people leading the perfect life? So much fun. So much great food. Such good friends. Look at TikTok, Instagram.
And then there’s Hal, the partying prince. Back in 1402, social media was known as gossip, and there was gossip aplenty about the heir apparent to the British throne. Drinking, whoring and hanging out with the low life had to be more fun for Hal than military training in the palace.
But, the gossipers and plotters wondered: Did Hal have the stuff to take over for his father, King Henry IV? As for Hal, was he really Mr. Debauchery? Or was it all a manufactured social-media character crafted just so he could abandon it, reforming dramatically in his ascent to leadership?
That’s just one plot line of several that Alexander Burns, producing artistic director of Quintessence Theatre, explores in “Rare Accidents,” his mashup of two of William Shakespeare’s history plays, “Henry IV Part 1” and “Henry IV Part 2.”
“Rare Accidents” runs Feb. 11 through March 18 at Quintessence’s Sedgwick Theater in Mt. Airy and is part of a coincidental smattering of Shakespeare plays being staged regionally. Catch the Bard at Philadelphia Theatre Co. (“Caesar”), Arden Theatre Co. (“Romeo and Juliet”) and People’s Light (“Twelfth Night”).
“Rare Accidents” looks at “how people are choosing when to engage and present themselves in a certain way,” Burns said. “When is it who they are and what is part of their strategy?”
Burns said he’s long been a fan of Shakespeare’s history plays, but selling them to American audiences is a challenge. “In America, they aren’t kind of prized the way the great Shakespeare epics are,” he said. People are ready to buy tickets for “Othello,” “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” or “King Lear,” but “as Americans, we really don’t like history. We like to ignore it.”
That’s why, Burns said, his abridgment of the two Shakespeare histories leans heavily on timeless themes – invention of character and the dynamics of father-son relationships.
“What is it that makes somebody in their formative [years] into leaders? Can you tell from how they are behaving in high school or college that they are going to be a future president or executive?
“There’s an intense focus on the father/son relationship,” Burns said. “The complexity of passing on what you have and what you’ve earned and what you’ve achieved to your son is something society has been grappling with” for generations.
No Shakespeare would be Shakespeare without its comic element – in this case, an aging, scheming hanger-on, Falstaff, played by Scott Greer. Burns said that Falstaff was such a popular character with Shakespeare’s audiences that the Bard kept finding plays to put him in.
Like Hal, Falstaff is also trying to upgrade his image. “The human condition has not changed or advanced with time or technology,” Burns said. “Falstaff is constantly claiming that `I’m going to go on that diet. I’m going to stop drinking. I’m going to go to the gym.’ He puts his toe in,” but doesn’t follow through.
Meanwhile, Falstaff never stops trying to exploit his connection to the royal family, especially Hal. Sound familiar?
Burns said he’s been keeping notes on Shakespeare’s histories for decades. To craft “Rare Accidents,” Burns started by crossing out some passages and highlighting others in the two plays in his Cambridge edition books of Shakespeare’s work. From there, Burns finished cutting and combining on the computer.
The two plays together would take about seven hours, he said. “Rare Accidents” manages it in three. All that cutting was painful, but Burns believes he has distilled the essence into one compelling night of theater.
The name comes from those rare moments in life when training and character can lead either to success and a bright future or can fall short, Burns said.
In Center City, Philadelphia Theatre Company’s co-artistic director Tyler Dobrowsky also did some trimming in his revamp of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” starting with the title – cut in half to “Caesar.” The full play can easily run to more than 2½ hours, but Dobrowsky has shortened it to just 95 minutes, describing it as a political thriller.
Dobrowsky promises to provide the story of Brutus’ betrayal of Roman emperor Julius Caesar distilled to its core themes of ambition, authoritarianism and the cost of protecting democracy. Sound familiar? It’s not an accident.
In the Philadelphia Theatre Co. production, which runs from Feb. 6 through Feb. 22, this ancient story, written by Shakespeare in 1599 and portraying events that happened in Rome more than 2,600 years ago, gets a modern treatment with toga-less costuming and an extensive video backdrop. In short videos, Dobrowsky, director Morgan Green and cast members provide insight on PTC’s website.
Out in the suburbs, People’s Light in Malvern stages Shakespeare’s popular comedy “Twelfth Night” from Feb. 25 through March 29. And, as is usual and fun with many Shakespeare plays, new settings and stylings emerge. Yes, there’s a shipwreck, but instead of washing up on the coast of Illyria, Viola finds herself at an upscale luxury resort.
Finally, from March 5 through April 5, Arden Theatre Co. presents “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Amina Robinson.
FYI
“Caesar,” Feb. 6-22, Philadelphia Theatre Co., Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., Phila. 215-985-0420.
“Rare Accidents,” Feb. 11-March 15, Quintessence Theatre, Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., Phila. 215-987-4450.
“Twelfth Night,” Feb. 25-March 29, People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern. 610-644-3500.
“Romeo and Juliet,” March 5-April 5, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. 2d St., Phila. 215-922-1122.
