We went on Sunday to see the +Colorado Shakespeare Festival performance of H6.1 (to coin an abbreviation), and had a faboo time.
The play itself is kind of a mess — it's a history, and things happen, and more things happen, and then it's The End, and there's no feel of a plot to it as in the normal Shakespeare play.
But the actual performance was a hell of a good time. In part that was the excellent CSF ensemble (some of whom we've already seen once or twice this season — the excellent Vanessa Morosco, both playing Joan and directing; Howard Swain; Peter Simon Hilton; Geoffrey Kent as both Talbot and fight director; pretty much everyone on stage). In part because they performed it at an "Original Practices" play. This is explained in the video below, but the result (as a groundling) was vastly entertaining, with boos and hisses and catcalls and hurled pieces of paper from the audience (who had the house lights up on them), and the actors working their way with minimal rehearsal and treating the audience as participants as well. It was fresh, lively, poignant in places, but just damned funny in others.
Their second (and last) performance is on Wednesday night this week — if you have the opportunity (unlikely, as it's sold out), I'd strongly encourage it. We'll definitely be targeting similar "Original Practices" shows in future CSF seasons.
More info:
– http://www.coloradoshakes.org/plays/2015/henry-vi-part-1