Doubling, or the practice of one actor playing multiple roles in one play or series of plays, was common on the early modern stage just as it is in Brave Spirits Theatre’s The King’s Shadow (the first half of our history-making history cycle). Playing companies like the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who performed Richard II, both parts of Henry IV, and Henry V in the 1590s, used doubling mainly for economic purposes. Trained literate actors were not a dime a dozen in early modern London, so companies used a handful of actors, often shareholders with the company, to play the major roles with the most lines. An assortment of hired men would play smaller parts, and of course younger boy actors, sometimes apprentices to the shareholders, would play the women’s parts.
Unfortunately, no records of what parts were doubled in Shakespeare’s plays survive from their original productions. Scholars and theatre practitioners instead look for clues to original doubling practices in the play texts themselves. There might be a character who drops out of the narrative when a new one is introduced, for example. At the end of Twelfth Night, when Orsino asks to see the ship’s captain who had helped Viola in the beginning, she replies that he is “now in durance, at Malvolio’s suit.” Or is it in Malvolio’s suit? Would the audience have chuckled, knowing that the actor who had played the captain could not be onstage, because he was about to enter as Malvolio?
This kind of “economic” doubling does a different kind of work than the “thematic” doubling which Brett Gamboa has pinpointed as having a major effect on the audience’s experience of watching a Shakespeare play. In Gamboa’s book Shakespeare’s Double Plays: dramatic economy on the early modern stage, he writes that doubling can create resonances between characters being shared by one actor’s body and enhance the audience’s viewing experience. A common “thematic” double might be the Ghost and Claudius in Hamlet, who never appear onstage together but might provide some continuity for the audience to see these brothers as connected. Doubling is utilized in many different ways, for different reasons, in Shakespearean performance, all dating back to the economic realities of the early modern stage.
In Brave Spirits’ The King’s Shadow tetralogy, audiences will see the same cast of 19 actors performing many different characters. For the actors who must shed one character to put on another, their previous roles will follow them in the audience’s memory, like shadows themselves. Some have one role that they follow throughout the four plays (Prince Hal/Henry V), while others might appear in as many as four roles in one play (in 2 Henry IV we have seven actors in that situation).
Here are four doubling choices to watch out for in The King’s Shadow:
1. Bolingbroke’s Foil: Sir Thomas Mowbray/Sir John Falstaff
One of the first images you will see in Richard II is two actors, Ian Blackwell Rogers and John Stange, standing side by side as Sir Thomas Mowbray and Henry Bolingbroke respectively. They have come to see King Richard about a dispute. They hate each other for reasons that are not very clearly articulated. Seeing these actors next to each other during the first run-through of Richard II, I couldn’t help but jump ahead to one play later, when Ian will take on the character of Sir John Falstaff. While Falstaff and Henry never face off directly in Henry IV, they are clearly put up against each other dramaturgically as Hal’s two fathers. While Henry is king of the court, Falstaff is ruler of the tavern, and Hal is caught between these two worlds. Seeing the conflict between Mowbray and Henry play out at the very beginning of the cycle feels like foreshadowing of what’s to come and the never ending challenges Henry faces to claiming authority over his kingdom.
2. The Prince’s Shadow: Prince John/Ned Poins
Michael Bannigan Jr. plays Ned Poins, a favorite companion of Prince Hal’s in his tavern escapades in 1 Henry IV. He also plays his younger brother Prince John of Lancaster, who appears towards the end of 1 Henry IV and more prominently in 2 Henry IV as he forces the surrender of the rebel army in Gaultree Forest (using very questionable methods). It seems likely that these two characters might have been doubled in the play’s original performance. Poins appears less as John becomes more significant, and they both relate directly to Hal, though in opposite ways. While Poins represents the carefree life of playing tricks in the tavern, John shows himself as a formidable fighter at Shrewsbury and has taken Hal’s place in the royal council. Having the same actor play both these roles highlights the doubleness of Hal’s own life, just as Henry IV and Falstaff compete as dueling father figures.
3. Spousal Combatants: Lord Mortimer/Sir Walter Blunt and Lady Mortimer/Earl of Douglas
During the first run-through of 1 Henry IV, I watched with great trepidation as the actor-combatants practiced their fights. While actors Dean Carlson (Blunt) and Molly E. Thomas (Douglas) ran their brutal combat, I was struck by a realization: “Wait, they’re married!” Not Blunt and the Douglas, of course, but just a couple acts earlier, these two actors, as Lord and Lady Mortimer, played a very sweet love scene together. Not only that, but Molly had to speak Welsh, sing a beautiful song, and THEN put on a Scottish accent and deftly swing an ax around! Another pleasure of doubling is seeing actors demonstrate a wide range and variety of skills. These performances will definitely not disappoint in that regard.
4. Tavern Folk Turned Royalty: Mistress Quickly/Queen Isabel and Frances/Princess Katherine
When presenting these plays in repertory, the journeys of the title characters like Henry IV or Henry V might get the most attention, but we can also consider how the minor characters who appear in multiple plays grow and develop over time. Lisa Hill-Corley (Quickly/Isabel) and Nicole Ruthmarie (Frances/Katherine) provide two such examples with their first tracks as Mistress Quickly and her apprentice Frances. When we see them in Part 1, Frances is still learning the ropes of working in Quickly’s tavern. By Part 2, Quickly’s husband has died, the tavern has turned part bawdy house, and Frances is still there, serving drinks and putting up with Hal’s shenanigans. The repetition of these characters, and their pairing together, will then be reflected and contrasted when the two actors take on the roles of French royalty in Henry V as Queen Isabel and Princess Katherine. Quickly and Frances, we have decided, almost have a mother/daughter dynamic, which will be played out in reality in the later play. This time, however, they are in a palace, not a pub.
These are just a few resonances I have noticed as we gear up to present these beautifully poetic, outrageously funny, and gut-wrenchingly emotional stories to you this winter. I know that our audiences will find many more!
– Emily MacLeod, Production Dramaturg for Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2