Henry VI (National Asian American Theatre Company)

I went to see both parts of this production in the same day, and I really enjoyed the experience.

It's basically all 3 of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays, but they're trimmed down and portioned out over the course of two parts (a la Angels in America or Cursed Child). The total runtime is a little under 6 hours, but for me it totally flew by! The staging is dynamic and engaging, making great use of a relatively small space. The design elements are also great (though a couple of the costumes choices struck me as a bit odd). The entirely Asian-American cast is uniformly strong as well.

It's not an innovative production, per se: the staging feels modern and fresh, but they mostly just do the plays straight - as in, they don't attempt to re-interpret or re-focus the text in any way. That didn't really bother me though because these plays are pretty plot-heavy, and they are so rarely produced, so they don't really call for as much heavy interpretation as something like Hamlet.

For those of you who might be intimidated by a whole day (or 2 long evenings) of Shakespeare history plays, I'd say give it a shot anyway. There's a helpful video infographic in the lobby, plus lots of info on the internet to prepare. And these plays are packed with exciting drama, full of twists and turns, plus lots of battles. They are anything but dull.

Has anyone else here seen it yet? Curious to hear others' thoughts. Looks like they're running for a couple more weeks.

why aren't more people talking about this amazing production

I only saw the first part which is the weaker of the two. The actors all seem to have impressive credits. Vanessa Kai was in KPOP at the same site. There is a lot of gender swapping and doubling which adds some confusion to an already confusing scenario.

They do seem to have made some edits here. Joan seems much more sympathetic here than in the actual play - she was the enemy after all. The first play is generally considered a collaboration. Some of the Shakespeare scenes are obvious- he never quite knows how to end a scene and they drag on a little more than necessary for the plot. All in all it’s slot of Shakespeare to take in at once - and how the actors remember all the dialogue is astounding. I may go back for the second part. It was available through TDF.