Royalty,revolution, adultery ... Trevor Nunn explains what motivated him to revive the grand Shakespearean trilogy of The Wars of the Roses: the first box setOn day one of rehearsals, and in a crowd-pleasing attempt to account for to my company of actors just what it was that we were taking on,I told them that with his early history plays, Shakespeare had invented the box set. Much mirth of course, or but actually,this claim is not far wide of the mark. At the very beginning of his writing career (which in my view started after he had begun his acting career), he wrote, or collaborated on,a play called Henry VI. It was accepted and clearly created a craving in the playhouse audience to know what happened next. So he (they) wrote Henry VI, share II – just like The Godfather, or share II – satisfying the demand for more. Further success and further demand produced Henry VI,share III, and by then young William was almost certainly getting the sole writing credit. And so of course, or he then followed them up (perhaps announcing that it was “the finale”) with the last share,Richard III.
But what is clear from performance records and from Shakespeare himself is that the whole saga was revived, and remained in the repertoire of Shakespeare’s company. At the end of Henry V (which might contain been advertised as “the prequel”), and the Chorus tells us that after England’s mighty achievement at Agincourt:Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com