I recently watched the 2013 recorded livestream of the Globe on Tour Henry VI, Part 2. This is part of the production where abridged versions of the Henry VI plays were performed on at various battlefields associated with the Wars of the Roses - this version is located on Hadley Common, where the Battle of Barnet was fought in 1471. I watched the livestream of Part 1 years ago when it was up on Globe Player but didn't get around to Part 2 or Part 3 before they redesigned Globe Player but finally, I found them again.
The idea of staging the plays at the various battlefields is quite an interesting and haunting idea, though, obviously, it means the plays can't be staged like they would in a theatre. Performing in the daytime (even a wet, dreary day like in the livestream) out in the open on a portable stage puts restrictions on lighting, space, staging, sound etc.. The cast is made up of 12/14 actors which means nearly everyone's playing multiple roles. All of the male cast except Henry VI are wearing a base costume of grey jacket, black trousers and boots and the character they're playing are distinguished by a usually bright outer garment. This would, imho, have been much better seen in person too - to have that experience of being on the battlefield itself, because live theatre is better seen in person than watched, but also because there are some sound issues - when the cast is out amongst the audience, their dialogue is much harder to hear on the video.
I don't say this to criticise but to acknowledge that the special nature of a "battlefield performance" means trade-offs in the way it's staged and filmed. There were times when the staging was a little more basic than I would have liked but it isn't a basic performance by any means - I find myself thinking about the choices they made a lot. I really liked the part where the cast are out amongst the audience singing a folk song about Jack Cade before we get the Cade scenes. imho, there's an intimacy to this production that's enjoyable.
There are some goofy bits, like dead characters getting up and walking off the stage to come back a couple of scenes later playing a new character. The actor who plays Humphrey goes onto play a bunch of minor characters who promptly get killed and it's like, wow, he's the Sean Bean of the production, every character he plays gets killed, sometimes within minutes of him arriving on stage (I'm pretty sure he also played the spirit summoned by Roger Bolingbroke). There's only two women in the cast so Margery Jourdemayne was played by a man in a dress.
But it is good fun and, really, you have to give props to the entire cast and crew for giving the performances while getting rained on the entire time.
I really liked their Henry - I enjoy that he has a bit more strength and sense of agency in his performance that the Hollow Crown Henry. I loved that right as soon Humphrey turned up to the parliament where he's arrested, Henry hugs him tightly. I was also very intrigued by the choice to have Cardinal Beaufort commit suicide by poison during his death scene.
Now for my thoughts on Eleanor and Humphrey.
To get the obvious out of the way: Humphrey is cast, as he usually is, an elder statesman-like figure, but Eleanor is cast a lot younger than him. I think this is a byproduct of the cast being so severely reduced - Eleanor's actor also plays Joan of Arc (and Lady Grey/Elizabeth Woodville). But it creates a very different dynamic for Eleanor and for her relationship with Humphrey than I've seen and I'm really intrigued by it?
Like, this is Humphrey with Eleanor:
It's giving "man has a midlife crisis and marries a woman young enough to be his daughter". It also comes across as a bit student/teacher or keeper/ward a bit? There are some very affectionate moments between them (as the screencap shows, there's also a kiss) but it's a bit of a miss in terms of an Eleanor/Humphrey I can really ship. And I'm not sure if I really liked Humphrey? I dunno whether it was the acting or that he came across quite harsh on top of the whole "old man with a young trophy wife" vibe.
But I really liked the way casting Eleanor so young shifted the dynamics of her character. Sure, it's not historically accurate but I don't need historical accuracy in Shakespeare who himself is often inaccurate. But seeing Eleanor was so young, I was immediately thinking: oh, she's not necessarily a bad person, the scheming, power-hungry virago that she often defaults to, she's just young, foolish and immature like the young always are. It makes her ending more of a tragedy because it's like: she could have grown to be better. I might be speaking more from my interest in humanising negative female stereotypes than what is intended by the play but the idea of Eleanor being the young bride of Humphrey's midlife crisis also adds a depth to her character - what does it mean to be the trophy wife, to be chosen for your beauty and youth and how you make a middle-aged man feel young again than for your mind and heart? I think there could be easily be a sense where Humphrey doesn't hear or see her but condescends to her from his position as a man of years, power and moral authority, and she is beginning to notice it.
And I'm drawn to the parallels between her and Henry VI - that they're two of the youngest looking characters in the play, that they have both have keeper/ward style of relationship with Humphrey. The play stages some seemingly affectionate moments between Henry and Eleanor- Eleanor reaching out to Henry during her catfight with Margaret, the fact Henry seems set to pronounce a death sentence on Eleanor before impulsively pardoning her and then helping her stand and then staying crouched down, frozen, after she leaves. Like, you could make an argument that Henry and Eleanor are better suited to each other in this production than they're suited to Margaret and Humphrey respectively.
(do I want to ship it? no. but I'm like "okay, let's explore this dynamic".)
Also liked how this production handled Eleanor's sentencing and penance scene. I dunno, I like as much as the scene is about Eleanor's abjection and distress, it can be very easily become about the voyeuristic spectacle of that and I like it when Eleanor has some spine in this scene*. I felt this production's take on it was closer to the Richard II deposition scenes that are like, yeah, Richard feels like shit and he's going to make everyone else feel really guilty for it. There's an interesting dynamic with Humphrey because she's pushing back against him, dragging him down with her. You think you're safe because you're noble and good but you're not. You can't protect me. You can't protect yourself. The way she says "Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself"... and the way he seems to be silenced by her? It's like - he can't stand to look at her, to speak to her, because that means looking at what he's done.
In short, lowkey highkey obsessed with this production.
* I don't love The Hollow Crown's handling of it at all and arguably it is the most sadistic staging of the penance walk I've seen - Eleanor is bloodied, in chains, in a cage and, crucially, the script is shifted so her penance is not completed but perhaps barely begun. One day I will review of the penance scenes in the various filmed adaptations but today is not that day.
