Druid Shakespeare: The History Plays

for a previous production "The performances throughout are wonderful...The teeming canvas of Shakesperean characters, rollicking action, and blend of high poetry and earthy comedy, are viscerally incarnated with in-your-face immediacy and intimacy...From first to last, Garry Hynes, her company and 13-strong cast, deliver an exhilarating production that shows, at 40 years of age, 'Druid' is still at the very top of its game." Full Review

for a previous production "An adaptation that Hynes, extraordinarily, stages with sustained pace and rigour...As a whole, the event is a thundering achievement in ownership of Shakespeare’s histories, not just in terms of craft but also in a sense of Irish authorship...'Druid' harnesses the Henriad in its power not to debase but to challenge the hierarchy. Irish artists have been too long hesitant to touch this epic for the difficult colonial history between nations, a resistance that now feels triumphantly overcome." Full Review

for a previous production "It leaves one exhilarated rather than exhausted...Seeing the plays in quick succession, one also grasps the instability of power, which is no sooner gained than threatened. Overwhelmingly, the production also shows how Shakespeare’s kings constantly use divine authority to mask temperamental flaws...Entering the theatre at five, we emerged in time to hear the chimes at midnight – but the long haul was eminently well rewarded." Full Review

for a previous production "There’s nothing quite as beautiful, or as torturous, as the crown of England we see in Druid’s remarkable staging of Shakespeare’s 'Henriad', its four plays carved into a lean and propulsive telling by Mark O’Rowe. Francis O’Connor’s creation is emblematic of his industrial and earthy set and, you feel, the entire undertaking: a garland of gilded roses held within a golden crown of thorns." Full Review

for a previous production "Some gambles misfire at times. But, then, in a six-hour show that races along at breakneck speed — a mad, dynamic pageant of fire, blood, guts, and spunk — something has to give. Sinking their teeth into Shakespeare, this brilliant Druid ensemble clutch him down to the sad, saving, and sacred earth where his work belongs, and you leave stunned by the measure and the ferocity of their bite." Full Review

for a previous production "What is remarkable is how there is such energy and colour about the production that it rarely feels cumbersome, though sometimes this is at a cost of substance being sacrificed to levity. And there are some distractions in erratic costume designs. But this production is a huge achievement, Shakespeare brought to life in a brazenly Irish way that gives the lines fresh meaning and relevance." Full Review