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Article: `Henry IV' inhabits royal hall of mirrors; REVIEW: Speed, raw emotion and a certain amount of confusion abound in the Pirandello play, adapted by Tom Stoppard and produced by Nimbus.(VARIETY)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- March 10, 2009
- Author:
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Byline: QUINTON SKINNER
Special to the Star Tribune
Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's "Henry IV" opens with emblematic confusion. The young would-be thespian Bertold (Tobi Poster) arrives for a gig in which he is to play a courtier to Henry IV, but shows up in the wrong period dress. The Henry to whom he is to feign service is the 11th-century Holy Roman emperor, not the French ruler of several centuries later (then, a couple centuries after that, Shakespearean fame).
Narrative untidiness continues to abound. It turns out that the group of youths playing Henry's court do so at the service of a madman (Dwight Gunderson, identified ...