Player Kings Review Round-up starring Ian McKellen

"A tour de force"

"A tour de force from 84-year-old Ian McKellen — catch him while you can"

"As Falstaff in Player Kings, the star gives a must-see masterclass in acting"

"If this isn’t great acting, I don’t know what is. To see Ian McKellen in full song, as he is here, aged 84 — 85 by the time this production leaves London for a summer tour of Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle — is to be reminded just how consumable Shakespeare can be. Yes, it’s a condensed Henry IV, Part One and Part Two that runs at almost four hours, but don’t worry: McKellen’s got this one."

"Ian McKellen and Toheeb Jimoh are phenomenal as a deluded Falstaff and dangerous Hal in Robert Icke’s elegant take on ‘Henry IV’"

"... Robert Icke’s three hour-40-minute modern-dress take on the two ‘Henry IV’ plays does not pander to its star, and is unwavering in its view that this is the story of two deeply damaged men, linked grimly together."

"McKellan is naturally excellent as an atypically elderly Falstaff, whose continual self aggrandisement is such that even his line about being in his fifties comes across as an improbable boast. But his younger co-star Toheeb Jimoh is equally as good as a bitter, angry Prince Hal, who feels startlingly a piece with the vengeful older version of himself we meet in ‘Henry V’."

"... in Icke’s version, the tension between the two leads is palpable. Jimoh’s Hal responds coldly to the older man’s attempts at mockery, and there is a palpable sense of danger to him. Hanging out at the Boar, he feels less a pampered princeling out of his depth, more an escaped tiger lying low at a petting zoo."

"Though no other actors have such meaty roles, ‘Player Kings’ has a supporting cast to die for: Edward-Cooke is excellent as a somewhat unknowable Hotspur, an edgy mix of thug and gentleman. Clare Perkins is a fine Mistress Quickly, tough as old boots but decent inside. Coyle does an excellent job of parsing a medieval monarch into a modern politician."

"Ian McKellen's Falstaff is a remarkable feat of skill and swagger"

"This rheumy, phlegmy performance by Britain’s greatest living classical actor is played with relish and superb comic timing"

"This is a four-star, almost four-hour Falstaff – a condensed version of Henry IV parts I and II that’s a luxurious feast for Ian McKellen and for audiences. His fat-suited, ebulliently shambolic presence drives and dominates Robert Icke’s production, edging the debate about kingship and fatherhood...

"Icke is known for his thrilling reinventions or rewrites of classics. Here he neatly streamlines the patriarchal power struggles of part I, by turns raucous and violent, then prunes the waffling jokes and rueful diminuendo of part II – not quite ruthlessly enough.

"Jimoh is charismatic and interestingly volatile as Hal, Coyle impressive in the thankless titular part, and there are some lovely supporting performances, including Perkins as Quickly and Geoffrey Freshwater as Bardolph. But this is McKellen’s show, more even than it is Icke’s."

"Sir Ian McKellen’s energy is astounding"

"As Falstaff, the 85-year-old actor sustains Robert Icke's challenging new four-hour adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts One and Two"

"It is a vanishingly rare occurrence for a lengthy adaptation of two Shakespeare history plays to open directly into the West End, without the safety net of a run in a subsidised theatre first. Yet this is no ordinary outing of Henry IV Part One and Two"

" With a running time of three and three-quarter hours – Icke’s slick modern-dress adaptation streamlines the two plays into one – Player Kings tests the stamina of audience and actors alike and while we lesser mortals might flag, McKellen’s boundless energy – not to mention line-learning capacity – is continually astounding."

"For all these plays’ wider concerns about a divided kingdom beleaguered by factions and rebellion, Icke sensibly focuses on the all-important central issue: which of the two available father figures will wayward Prince Hal (Toheeb Jimoh) choose to emulate?"

"Icke’s slick staging offers a pacy series of scenes, including myriad split-stage conference calls between Westminster and the glowering rebels in Northumberland. Yet the production’s centre of gravity always lies in the proximity of the devilishly charismatic Falstaff and his great belly and there is a moment of shimmering pathos when Hal believes the old man has died on the battlefield."

"Ian McKellen stirs the soul as Falstaff in this four-hour epic"

"We should be eternally grateful that McKellen added this challenge to his bucket-list – it’s not perfect, but is a must-witness even so"

"At 84, there’s clearly life in the acting titan yet (and long may it be). Even so, an unmistakable aura of elegy and mortality hangs over his largely delightful and affecting turn as old Jack Falstaff, who, with his shaggy beard and wispy white hair, inevitably recalls Gandalf but has a gargantuan belly and little of the wizard’s wisdom."

"Though it can incline to the briskly efficient, Icke’s production – modern-dressed and mighty brick-walled, with swishing beige curtains softening the austerity – is intelligent and beautifully bookended. First Richard Coyle’s grave and wan Henry IV receives the crown, orb and sceptre in a posture of monarchical authority; then, at the climax, Toheeb Jimoh’s Prince Hal performs the same ritual, assuming a silent steadfastness that speaks of crushing regal duties."

"Although Icke’s version doesn’t always convince in its Eastcheap scenes of hearty abandon, what comes across with clarity is that Hal and his surrogate father, Falstaff, are jointly trying to deflect from the inevitable (kingship and death), clinging together but not really kindred spirits."

"Ian McKellen is an astonishingly fresh Falstaff"

"Ian McKellen is a masterly Falstaff in Robert Icke’s incisive and intelligent adaptation of Shakespeare"

"This rich, vivid and visceral version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV parts one and two is at once a skewering of the mythology of Englishness and patriotism, a shrewd overview of the current state of the nation and a piece of premium classical theatre."

"You might also be tempted to sense resonance in the depiction of a world-weary monarch with a wayward son called Harry – but Icke is far too meticulous and intelligent a theatremaker to draw crude political parallels. Instead, what he delivers is thoughtful, needling and often very entertaining. The pacy first half gives way to a certain amount of languor in the second, which could withstand a few more cuts to decrease the daunting running time. Yet it’s all conveyed with pin-sharp clarity and an arresting immediacy."

"At the thumping heart of it all is McKellen’s fabulous Falstaff. This lord of misrule, an aristocrat and petty criminal slumming it with the working class, is a slothful, wheezing, stinking creature of appetite, a stained vest straining over his ample, quivering gut (McKellen is extravagantly but persuasively padded)."

"Ian McKellen’s richly complex Falstaff is magnetic"

"Mutating from head criminal in a gothic thriller to slippery music hall entertainer, showman McKellen has centripetal force in Robert Icke’s slick, modern dress production"

"It is a wonder that among Ian McKellen’s great, long roster of Shakespearean roles, he has not taken on the corpulent comic antihero of the Henry IV dramas before now. He makes a radically moving Falstaff in Robert Icke’s handsome production of the two joined-up history plays, turning Shakespeare’s embodiment of rude life – the carnal and carnivalesque – inside out."

"McKellen is not without comedy but the humour is delivered drily, without the jolliness that Falstaff’s physicality usually brings."

"Adapted and directed by Icke, this is a slick modern dress production with a magnificent brick-backed set designed by Hildegard Bechtler"

"But the coming-of-age drama around Hal and his difficult journey towards royal duty feels slightly in the shadows. The centripetal force is Falstaff who has a genial rapport with Hal but the latter seems secondary, although Jimoh plays the fun-loving prince well..."

"There is a shift in tone between two parts: the first is staged as a gothic thriller, of sorts, with long shadows and suspense. The shorter latter half feels oddly anti-climatic."

"The necessary truncations here mean that its pace is faster but there is less development of its themes."

"Ian McKellen shines in overlong Shakespeare reimagining"

"Robert Icke’s adaptation of Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, comes bustling to life whenever Ian McKellen’s Falstaff is on the stage."

"Is that enough of a reason to catch what could possibly be McKellen’s farewell to the West End? I hesitate to say yes because Icke’s marathon modern-day Shakespeare production — which runs to nearly four hours — yields such mixed results."

"Toheeb Jimoh, lean and athletic, makes a likeable prince who delivers a mean headbutt before he is given his chance to prove he can play the part of a monarch. Richard Coyle’s King Henry possesses suitable gravitas, and at the other end of the scale Geoffrey Freshwater’s artful Bardolph roams in the background like a shrivelled, hungry jackal."

"It’s in the first half of the evening, a full two hours long, that the drama is at its sharpest. After the interval, there’s a sense of events being allowed to pile up almost at random."