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"Henry IV, Part 1," along with its partner, "Part 2" is Shakespeare's incredible, incredible
portrayal of an entire world, an entire society, but it focuses on both the growth of Prince
Hal, from a guy who's sowing his wild oats to somebody who begins to accept, which might
have been odious to him, the responsibility towards leadership, and the fact that a young
man has basically two fathers, a cold and distant and somewhat guilt-ridden Henry IV,
his father, and a kind of down and out man, larger than life, full of excess on every
level, Falstaff, and these are his two fathers, and eventually, eventually, he's forced to
choose, but, along the way, it's a terrific ride. "Part 2," which is done—"Henry IV,
Part 2," which is done much less frequently, is—if "Part 1" is about the growth of these
young people, "Part 2" is really about the coming of age and decline into the older generation,
and how that mirrors a kind of melancholy, a kind of richness of experience, a kind of
the end of it, uh, is almost Chekhovian to me, and I've never gotten the chance to do
the whole thing, and now I will.