Falstaff

Published Friday 27 June 2008 at 16:50 by Graham Gurrin

It is 1459 and asleep on the floor of the Boar’s Head Tavern is an old man, 81 years of age, who wakes and proceeds to tell us the story of his life, his exploits on the battlefield and in bed, his ancestors, kings he has known and so on. Doesn’t sound too promising, does it? But when you bear in mind that the old man is Falstaff, who Shakespeare thought enough of to include in three plays, and kill off in a fourth, it begins to get interesting. For, we find, Falstaff didn’t die (cf Henry V Parts two and three), he bought the Boar’s Head, the very tavern where he spent so much time carousing with Prince Hal.

Roger Forbes had the idea for adapting Richard Nye’s lengthy novel for the stage in 1986 and he credits Canadian director John Wood, with whom he discussed it a mere four years ago, with actually getting the show on the road. Stage and costume design by Eo Sharp is spot on.

There are tapestries as backdrops, lots of leather, pewter and wood, and props such as a chess set, with which Falstaff re-enacts the battle at Agincourt.

Treading that dangerous place between laughter and tears, between bravado and desolation, Forbes carries off this one-man show to perfection. Perhaps the best recommendation is that I went away wanting a) to reread Henry IV Parts one and two, b) to watch Olivier in Henry V, and c) to see Merry Wives. Oh, and d) to return to the Warehouse to catch the show again.