Sir Ian McKellen, aged 85, will portray Sir John Falstaff in Player Kings, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 opening at London’s Noël Coward Theatre on 1 April 2024. The production, directed by Robert Icke, marks the first time McKellen has tackled one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated comic roles in a career spanning over six decades.
The 12-week West End run follows previews at the New Wimbledon Theatre from 1-9 March and the Manchester Opera House from 14-23 March 2024. The production concludes on 22 June before embarking on a national tour to Bristol Hippodrome, Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre, Norwich Theatre Royal, and Newcastle Theatre Royal through 27 July 2024.
The Production
Robert Icke, the youngest-ever winner of the Olivier Award for Best Director (for Oresteia in 2016), has adapted and compressed Shakespeare’s two history plays into a single evening running approximately three hours and 45 minutes. The adaptation retains Shakespeare’s original language while setting the action in a contemporary register – the opening scene features semi-clad revellers snorting cocaine and waving guns to a deafening dance music soundtrack, reimagining Eastcheap’s Boar’s Head Inn as a modern dive bar (TheatreVibe, 2024).
Icke’s staging centres on the generational conflict between King Henry IV and his wayward son Hal, played by Toheeb Jimoh of Ted Lasso fame. Richard Coyle, known for Ink and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, appears as the ailing monarch. The production’s creative team includes set design by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Lee Curran, sound by Gareth Fry, and casting by Julia Horan.
McKellen’s Shakespeare Legacy
McKellen’s professional relationship with Shakespeare began at Cambridge in 1959, when he played Justice Shallow in John Barton’s undergraduate production of Henry IV, Part 2 opposite Derek Jacobi as Prince Hal. “Ever since, the plays have been among my favourite Shakespeares, although through the years I’ve resisted offers to play John Falstaff,” McKellen stated in the production’s official announcement. “Robert Icke’s ingenious adaptation was irresistible.”
Since his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 1961, McKellen has appeared in over 20 major Shakespeare productions. His Shakespeare credits include Richard II (1968), Hamlet (1971), King Lear (1974, 1990, 2007-2008), Romeo (1976), Macbeth with Judi Dench (1976), Toby Belch (1978), Coriolanus (1984-85), Iago (1989), and Richard III (1990, 1992, 1995, including a feature film adaptation). He has won six Laurence Olivier Awards throughout his career and received two Academy Award nominations – for Best Actor in Gods and Monsters (1998) and Best Supporting Actor as Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Rings (2001).
The Character of Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays: Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. A fat, vain, and boastful knight, Falstaff spends his time drinking at the Boar’s Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. He leads Prince Hal into trouble and is repudiated when Hal becomes king. The word “Falstaffian” has entered the English language with connotations of corpulence, jollity, and debauchery.
Icke has reimagined Falstaff as a more complex figure than the traditional jovial clown. “He’s a criminal, not a jolly Santa figure,” Icke told press at the production’s launch. McKellen described the character as “the ultimate gangster,” noting that the role had been offered to him many times over the years but that Icke’s adaptation finally persuaded him to accept.
Critical Reception
Reviews for Player Kings have been mixed to positive. The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar awarded the production six out of ten, describing McKellen’s performance as “richly complex” and “magnetic,” while criticising the adaptation’s pacing. Sam Marlowe of The Stage gave eight out of ten, calling McKellen’s Falstaff “a slothful, wheezing, stinking creature of appetite” in a positive sense, praising the actor’s physical transformation with padding and drool.
Fiona Mountford of i wrote that “McKellen’s boundless energy – not to mention line-learning capacity – is continually astounding,” while the Financial Times called the performance “unforgettable” and noted that “McKellen, nearly 85, is magnificent.” Dominic Maxwell of The Sunday Times declared: “If this isn’t great acting, I don’t know what is.”
The production’s West End run was interrupted on 17 June 2024 when McKellen fell from the stage during a performance, resulting in hospital treatment. He did not return to the production for its final days.
Ticket Details
Across the three venues, 8,000 tickets at £30 or under were made available exclusively for under-30s, with at least 60 tickets at that price available for every performance, located across all levels of the auditorium. General booking opened on 21 November 2023 via the production’s official website.
The production was produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, with McKellen’s casting announced on 15 November 2023. The Noël Coward Theatre, a Delfont Mackintosh venue, hosted the 12-week West End engagement.
Sources:
1. Ian McKellen Official Website. “Player Kings / Ian McKellen / Falstaff / UK Tour 2024.” mckellen.com/stage/24-player-kings/index.html. Accessed March 2024.
2. West End Best Friend. “Ian McKellen to play Falstaff in Robert Icke’s PLAYER KINGS.” 15 November 2023.
