William Shakespeare's
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTED BY DAMIEN RYAN
Falstaff: “Banish not him thy Harry's company, banish plump Jack and banish all the world.”
Prince Hal: “I do. I will.”
After a sell-out season in 2024, Sport for Jove returns with Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1. Teachers have the rare opportunity to see it as a standalone piece or to experience the story within the context of its original tetralogy, fuelled by the events of Richard II and culminating in the rise to power of Henry V. Given a deeply relevant modern setting, this is an unmissable experience. (See our The Player Kings production to see the full event version.)
​Redemption? Disgrace? Honour? Legitimacy? Love? Glory? What sort of world do the young inherit from the old, and what should we fight for? Henry IV is a play made for our time. Shakespeare looks back at history to imagine his nation’s future and turns an immense and kaleidoscopic national lens on that most simple and human of relationships – the family.
The play is moving, funny and thrillingly chaotic, swaying on a tightrope of irrational thought and behaviour, trying to maintain its sanity and balance, tumbling from conniving politics to saturnalian madness as people at every level of English society grasp for power, notoriety, fame and loyalty from those around them.
It is Shakespeare having an absolute ball with what this thing called theatre can be, and is one of the world’s greatest studies in courage, crime, the nature of rebellion and the challenge of living up to our responsibilities. Sport for Jove’s brand-new production of Henry IV is another example of the exceptional clarity and accessibility which our company has become renowned.
The production includes a detailed 20-minute lecture on the play by director Damien Ryan and Q&A with the students to deepen their relationship to the work.
SYLLABUS LINKS
Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature;
Senior English – year 11 & 10
Drama – Years 10-12 – Introduction to and sophisticated analysis of Shakespeare’s plays and theatrical practices.
History – Interpretation and Propaganda
RUNNING TIME
2 hrs 30 mins (incl. 20-min lecture, an interval and a Q&A with the cast afterward)
STUDENT RESOURCE KIT PROVIDED
“A stellar performance.
The students are still buzzing from it.”
– LIVANIA ADAM