Henry IV, Part 1

Canadian Stratford Shakespearean Festival Company

This recording was sponsored by the Toronto Star (for educational purposes) and made in the Canadian Stratford Shakespearean Festival Theatre by the Festival Company in 1958. The play was directed by Michael Langham, assisted by George McCowan; it was designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch and Marie Day. The music was composed by John Cook. Cast members included Douglas Campbell as Falstaff, Douglas Rain (who was to go on and play the voice of another Hal, Hal 9000, oddly enough, in 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]) as Prince Hal, Diana Maddox as Lady Mortimer, and William Hutt as Worcester.

Introductory materials from the record jacket provide a fascinating glimpse into why the Toronto Star, one of Canada's leading media enterprises, took an active role in the production of the recording. "Henry IV (Part 1) is one of eight plays which Shakespeare wrote around the political history and careers of five monarchs of the late 14th and 15th century England … We must remember that, under the strong Tudor monarchs, England was for the first time united. Englishmen, as never before, were made aware of themselves as members of one nation. Military and naval successes, Protestant religious self-assertion, mercantile expansion, capitalist growth and an artistic renaissance exemplified by Shakespeare himself … all these factors led Englishmen to feel a new sense of power and a new pride in being English. From this pride stemmed that flamboyant and nationalistic interest in their own past to which Shakespeare appealed in the historical plays." In 1958, with post-war prosperity firmly in place and the effects of the Massey Commission Report taking root––one of whose recommendations had been the establishment of the Canada Council (which occured in 1957)––Canada's own nascent sense of nationalist purpose and unity, crucially aligned with the production of a national theatre, may well have found a sympathetic resonance (however imaginary) in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. The association of Shakespearean history with the image of one, united nation and artistic renaissance clearly maps onto Canadian national rhetoric of the 50s.

Audio Clip: Act 4, Scene 1
On the eve of battle Hotspur, played by Jason Robards Jr., and his companions learn that neither Northumberland nor Glendower will appear. Nevertheless, Hotspur remains heroically courageous. He declares: "Doomsday is near, die all, die merrily."