“Upon
the king! Let us our lives, our souls,
Our debts, our careful wives,
Our children, and our sins lay on the king!
O hard condition, twin-born with
greatness...”
–
Henry V
In the 400 years since Shakespeare penned Richard
II, The First and Second Parts of Henry IV,
and Henry V, the systems of power in
the western world have evolved from monarchy to democracy; but something has
remained constant. We may have our parliament (as Richard II had his), but we
still entrust, at least to some degree, the power of national decision-making
to a single individual. What compels someone to seek a throne (be it situated
inside a castle, an Oval Office or a boardroom), and what should we demand from
those who sit upon them? These questions boom like cannons from every line of
these quintessentially political plays. Today, it is impossible to contemplate
Richard, Henry and Hal without considering Trudeau and Obama, Trump, Clinton
and Sanders, Putin and Merkel and Gaddafi and Mubarak and the Koch brothers,
and all the kings of our current age, elected, anointed or self-appointed. We
have tried to breathe all of these giants into our kings, and, just as
importantly, into those who inflate and deflate them: the flatterers, the
revolutionaries, the councillors, the critics and the jesters.
Though these stories of kings may seem
distant from our lived experience, for Weyni they are her family
history. Her great-grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie (of Ethiopia), died
three years before she was born. Most of her family was executed, or imprisoned
until she was thirteen. “My father came to Canada to study; then the revolution
happened and he had to start a whole new life. I am the first of my family born
abroad, the first born outside the palace walls. I grew up straddling the two
worlds, trying to understand my family, who don’t always have all the words to
express their complicated history. For me, these stories have been a gift, a
window into the psychology of people in these positions of power.”
It is only appropriate that this cycle of plays, focused on
what it means to be the one in charge, has been brought to life through a truly
collaborative process. Together, we have directed this double-barrelled epic Breath
of Kings – a relatively uncommon practice (co-directing in the
theatre is only slightly less rare than co-monarch-ing was in medieval Europe).
Alongside adaptor and associate director Graham Abbey, we have all worked to
bring Rebellion and Redemption
to life, in partnership with our inspired design team and this exceptional
group of nineteen performers. We have spent many months excavating these four
endlessly rich Shakespeare texts, and this revolutionary time in English
history. The result is two interconnected theatrical experiences, self-contained
but also cyclical. Among other things, these are tales of inheritance: as in
our world, the decisions, aspirations, mistakes and crimes of one generation
fertilize the ground for the world that is to come after.
We hope you see in these stories, as we have, something to
inspire, something to incite, and something to question.