Alabama Shakespeare Festival's The War of the Roses

At 2:00 pm sharp on April 28, 2007, director Diana Van Fossen appeared to a capacity crowd surrounding the Octagon Stage at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) and urged all spectators to silence their electronic devices. Her comments marked the last reference to twenty-first-century life that spectators would hear during a three-hour journey that dramatized English political upheaval and turmoil during the fifteenth century. The ASF's lively rendition of Henry VI, Part A remained true to Shakespeare's text in plot, characterization, and costume, but much like Shakespeare's audience, modern spectators had to rely on a lively imagination to supplement the dramatization on stage. Two large doors located at back center stage opened to a hard-wood floor about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide; two stairways on opposite ends of the center doors enabled the actors to ascend onto a smaller balcony (and spectators to upper-row seating) that served as the second story of a castle; a few props such as swords and fifteenth-century costumes completed the stage design for the play.

Anything lacking in the scenic design, however, was quickly forgotten by spectators once the talented troupe began their energetic performance; but this dramatization of Henry VI, which aspired to reproduce Shakespeare's play as his audience might have experienced it, included occasionally overly vociferous delivery of dialogue, which at times dampened the spirit of his play. The sparse scenic designs and boisterous emoting aside, the ASF managed to overcome the challenges faced by any modern acting company that undertakes to dramatize Shakespeare and remain faithful to the Elizabethan dramatic spirit, and few spectators, if any, were disappointed in the final product...