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The Life and Death of King John
Presented by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. January 14-February 5, 2011. Directed by Brian Isaac Phillips. Set by Travis McElroy. Costume by Heidi Jo Schiemer. Lighting by Sara Watson. Sound by Christopher Guthrie. Fights by Drew Fracher. With Billy Chace (King John), Christopher Guthrie (Philip the Bastard), Jeremy Dubin (Philip, King of France), Jim Hopkins (Cardinal Pandolf ), Sherman Fracher (Queen Eleanor), Corinne Mohlenhoff (Constance), Jeff Groh (Hubert), Darnell Pierre Benjamin (Louis the Dauphin), Ben Kleymeyer (Arthur), Jacob Kraus (Prince Henry), and others.
Striding across the stage as he railed against "commodity," Christopher Guthrie pumped his fists as Philip, the Bastard, punctuating his comments on the conflicting interests that crossed Cincinnati Shakespeare's production of The Life and Death of King John: "Mad world, mad kings, mad composition!" Guthrie's Philip, the illegitimate son of King Richard I, delivered his lines in a crescendo, rebuking the move from "a resolved and honorable war / To a most base and vile-concluded peace." In this speech, as in the production's key moments, Guthrie's Bastard captured the frenzy of political and personal contest that roils the unstable kingdom, challenging King John's monarchal line to hold off France by outlasting young Prince Arthur's competing claim to the English succession. Cincinnati Shakespeare's production solved the murky political calculus of Shakespeare's early history play by returning the play to its basic components. Travis McElroy's restrained set for King John featured little more than an upstage platform; Heidi Jo Schiemer's period costumes complemented the minimalist wood set-properties. Brian Isaac Phillip's production still encountered a few moments of obscurity-it would be...