Kings of War
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2016 BAM Next Wave Festival #KingsOfWar Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Katy Clark, President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Kings of War BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Nov 3—5 at 7pm Nov 6 at 1pm Running time: approx. four hours & 25 mins, including intermission By William Shakespeare Toneelgroep Amsterdam Directed by Ivo van Hove Translation by Rob Klinkenberg Adaptation by Bart van den Eynde and Peter van Kraaij Dramaturgy by Peter van Kraaij Design and lighting by Jan Versweyveld Music composed by Eric Sleichim Season Sponsor: Costumes by An D’Huys Video by Tal Yarden Support for the Signature Artist Series provided by Howard Gilman Foundation. In Dutch with English titles Support for Kings of War provided by the Performing Arts Fund NL. Major support for theater at BAM provided by: The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust Donald R. Mullen Jr. The SHS Foundation The Shubert Foundation, Inc. Kings of War CAST ROBERT DE HOOG HÉLÈNE DEVOS FRED GOESSENS JANNI GOSLINGA AUS GREIDANUS JR. MARIEKE HEEBINK HANS KESTING RAMSEY NASR CHRIS NIETVELT ALWIN PULINCKX HARM DUCO SCHUT BART SLEGERS EELCO SMITS LEON VOORBERG Kings of War CAST Ramsey Nasr Henry V, Richmond Eelco Smits Grey, Henry VI Hans Kesting Richard III Leon Voorberg Charles VI, Warwick, Stanley Aus Greidanus Jr. Gloucester, Buckingham Alwin Pulinckx Exeter, Prince of Wales Bart Slegers Chief of Staff, York, Edward IV Chris Nietvelt Montjoy, Leonora, Elizabeth Fred Goessens Cardinal, Rivers Harm Duco Schut Williams, Prince Edward, Prince of York Hélène Devos Katharina, Lady Anne Marieke Heebink Duchess of York Robert de Hoog Dauphin, Suffolk, Clarence Janni Goslinga Margareta MUSICIANS Steve Dugardin (contratenor) BL!NDMAN (brass) Konstantin Koev, Charlotte van Passen, Daniel Quiles Cascant, Daniel Ruibal Ortigueira ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION CREDITS Co-commissioned by Barbican London, Théâtre National de Chaillot, and Wiener Festwochen Co-produced with BL!NDMAN, Holland Festival, Muziektheater Transparant, Rabobank Amsterdam, and Harry and Marijke van den Bergh MUSICIANS STEVE DUGARDIN KONSTANTIN KOEV DANIEL RUIBAL ORTIGUEIRA DANIEL QUILES CHARLOTTE CASCANT VAN PASSEN Photo: Jan Versweyveld Photo: Yannick Grandmont Photo: Yannick Kings of War SUMMARY with the ultimate decision about the life and death of thousands of citizens and in which they William Shakespeare’s kings are political reign from a feeling of empathy and justice or, in leaders who come face to face with the ultimate contrast, are led by an unbridled lust for power. responsibility: they must make the life-or-death decision of whether to go to war. Shakespeare KINGS draws us into the psychology of the rulers, while also revealing the machinations of their In Henry V, we follow an inexperienced king courtiers and advisors. Kings of War lays bare who, after a disorderly youth and early accession the mechanisms of decision-making in times of to the throne, emerges as a leader who knows political crisis, exposing the dichotomy between how to combine vision and political instinct and national interests and self-importance. finds his fate in the war against France. Not only Henry V (Ramsey Nasr), at first a young does he succeed in letting the English people and inexperienced monarch, quickly reveals stay loyal to him in times of war, but he also himself to be a rational, moral leader who is shows respect in dealing with the enemy. To willing to place his country’s interests above him, his monarchy is a mission, his leadership his own. He marries a French princess in order a model of responsibility. The adaptation is to secure peace. Henry VI (Eelco Smits) fails to tailored to Henry’s slow realization of his place reconcile the warring factions and knows that in history, this short-lived desperation and his the French are poised to invade. Shakespeare victory, not only over France, but especially over portrays Henry VI as an ineffectual ruler who himself. In beautiful monologues and speeches, is excluded from the center of power as his Shakespeare wrote the coming-of-age of a king. country crumbles around him. His rank leads Henry VI is, in contrast to his father, a king only to isolation. who lacks every kind of political sense and Richard III (Hans Kesting) is depicted as has no eye at all for the conflicting interests the embodiment of evil; a king with absolutely at the English court. He is driven by a deeply no regard for the national interests. In fact, he Christian belief and wants to reign according to deliberately destroys the fragile peace which the highest moral norms and values, but in his follows the Wars of the Roses. Richard is character, it becomes painfully clear that a lofty egocentric: as a leader, he lacks all empathy ideal does not guarantee a stable and righteous and seeks only ultimate power for himself. He leadership. He lacks the charisma and insight of regards himself as “God’s equal,” his only desire his predecessor and becomes a plaything in the to rule over life and death. England is merely hands of his wife Margareta and the different the backdrop. factions at the court that claim more and more power. Shocked by the harshness of the political LEADERSHIP profession, Henry VI retreats more and more. He becomes a hermit king who steps down to Kings of War is a compilation of Henry V, Henry make place for the Yorks, who prove their claim VI, and Richard III, three plays in which William to the throne and dispose of him. In Henry Shakespeare, in Ivo van Hove’s reading, puts VI, the difference between moral vision and political leadership center stage. The original pragmatic leadership becomes clear. He lacks texts were retranslated by Rob Klinkenberg and the instinct of the survivor and the ambition then thoroughly adapted: the Hundred Years War of the powerful politician and lets himself be between England and France and the Wars of driven away. Eventually, before he is killed by the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and Richard III, he finds peace of mind far away York over the English throne, which are explicitly from the political intrigues. present as a historical context in the original After the coup by the house of York and the plays, have been sent into the background in coronation of Edward IV as the oldest son, a order to create space for a mixed portrait of period of relative tranquility and peace begins, the consecutive kings. As leaders in times of which is soon disturbed by his younger brother political instability and war, they show a striking Richard III’s immense hunger for power. He is a kinship to contemporary world leaders. Kings man looking to be acknowledged. His deformity of War is not a historical reconstruction, but a and the trauma of his birth and loveless youth performance in which leaders are confronted leave deep traces within him. He seeks revenge Wh Kings of War on all those who do not respect him to the WAR ROOM fullest. The ambition to seize the English crown is something Richard learned at home. As soon For the stage design, scenographer Jan as the crown is back in the hands of the Yorks, Versweyveld let himself be inspired by his own brothers become his opponents and his Churchill’s war room, from where he led the hunger for power turns against his own family. fight against Germany during World War II. The With Richard III, Shakespeare created one of space in Kings of War is something between a his most complex characters, a man who lives private room and political-military headquarters solely for the future and never accounts for the around which a labyrinth of corridors is built. (horrible) deeds he committed in the past; a man It is where the consecutive leaders make their without roots, without an accepted past, a man decisions about life and death in the privacy of a who wants to heal the shattered image of himself bunker, fed by video footage and messages from by means of immense ambition. Shakespeare the outside world. The footage by video designer lets Richard share his plans with the audience, Tal Yarden creates the world around the center making them, in a way, accomplices or at least of power and show the consequences of the war privileged witnesses of the horrible machinations and the conversations in the corridors. and reckonings that make up Richard’s life. The In Henry V, the war room forms the place trauma of the lovelessness and the yearning for from where the king makes political and military acknowledgement form the breeding ground decisions that determine the fate of the country of this master manipulator and murderer. The and is also the room in which the political leader monarchy as a mission is far away, as are confronts his doubts and demons in solitude. the high moral standards of Henry VI. What In Henry VI, the war room is a space in remains is the monarchy as the reckoning of an which the king is surrounded by advisors and outstanding debt: Richard III wants to let the opportunistic achievers, a kind of parliamentary world pay for the injustice that was done to him. discussion room in which the king is slowly ousted from the center of power. WAR Finally, in Richard III, the war room forms the space of Richard’s isolation: a bleak no In Henry V, the war against France still forms a man’s land in which, after the battle, only the centripetal power that unites a nation.