Shakespeare Henry IV Parts I & II plays. Directed 2014 by Gregory Doran at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This is a combo pack containing two plays that are available individually: Henry IV Part I and Henry IV Part II. See our stories on the individual titles for more details and our grades on each.
Shakespeare wrote 4 plays (called the Henriad) about the long and deadly struggles among the descendants of Edward III for the English throne; Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V. We already have a splendid HDVD from the Royal Shakespeare Company of Richard II. Here we get both parts of Henry IV. It's now May 2015. This fall, Gregory Doran and the RSC will present Henry V with Alex Hassel (the actor who plays Prince Hal in both parts of Henry IV) as King Henry V. One would expect Opus Arte and the RSC to promptly publish an HDVD of this, and we will then have splendid recordings of the entire Henriad from the RSC.
Getting back to business, this report is about the "Special Edition" putting Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 together in a single box. What's special about this? Well, theses 2 titles have 9 actors playing the same characters in both plays. Part 1 is more famous than Part 2; many people who have enjoyed Part 1 have never seen Part 2. But with this package, if you get comfortable with Part 1, the continuity of characters should make it relatively easy for you to enjoy Part 2 as well.
To date, there doesn't seem to be a discount for buying this box from the cost of the single titles. But that could change.
But, for the first time, your HDVD box comes with a poster!
You might wonder how you get a poster into a Blu-ray disc box. Here's how:
Unfold the paper and you will find two posters (on both sides of one sheet )!
One might find it hard to imagine how to use this poster, but that's up to you. Oh! Sorry about those white fold creases.
Here's the official stage production trailer, which is close enough to the disc to show here:
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