Shakespeare performed where blood actually stained the grass. History doesn't repeat, but it sure rhymes loud here.
The saintly Henry VI is undermined by his nobles, especially the ambitious Richard, Duke of York, and by the Kentish rebellion, led by the charismatic Jack Cade, popular champion and savage critic of England’s social inequality. Part of the Battlefield Performances. A touring production of site-specific performances staged at the historic battle sites of the War of the Roses. This performance was captured live at Barnet.
Direction
Bagnall weaponizes the actual battlefield; geography becomes character.
Acting
Butler's Henry: too gentle for his crown, devastating because of it.
Production
Open-air staging makes weather and war indistinguishable.
Director
Nick Bagnall
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Barnet was the 1471 battle where the real Henry VI was captured; the production staged his fictional downfall on the literal ground of his historical defeat.
The Battlefield Performances series deliberately blurred audience and mob—spectators at Barnet stood where soldiers once fell, making them complicit witnesses to Cade's uprising.
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