Prince Hal at Breweries Is a Win-Win Proposition

This article was published by Triangle Review on 28 October 2023.

Scrap Paper Shakespeare is a scrappy troupe of Shakespeare lovers, dedicated to creating quality, professional theater for audiences in the Triangle of North Carolina. There are four more productions of Scrap Paper Shakespeare's Prince Hal -- adapted and directed by the Triangle's own Emma Szuba from the texts of Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V by William Shakespeare -- all performed at brewing companies throughout the Triangle and beyond; and your tickets include your first drink. Tonight's performance is at 7 p.m. Oaklyn Springs Brewery in Fuquay Varina.

Attending last night's performance of Prince Hal enabled me, for the first time, to visit Gizmo Brew Works in Durham. The play was performed on a grass courtyard outside the venue, with a vista of illuminated signs and shops reminiscent of a quieter section of Las Vegas. It was easy to forget that we were surrounded by cars in an (admittedly impressive) strip-mall parking lot.

There are seven actors in Prince Hal, all of whom play at least five characters, except Shaun Schneider, who only plays Prince Hal (later King Henry V). All the actors, except Michael Foley, who plays the prominent Falstaff among others, appear to be fresh out of college, which is all the more reason to support their budding careers.

Unfortunately, the lack of microphones in the public outdoor venue, made it exceedingly difficult to hear the actors' voices. This made it difficult to follow Shakespeare's poetic dialogue, inhibiting the audience's enjoyment of a quintessential part of the play. It didn't help that the brewery's balcony overlooked the performance, such that the voices of those drinking above us often drowned out the actors on stage.

Shaun Schneider (Prince Hal) and Michael Foley (Falstaff et al.) were exceptions in this regard. They projected their voices as if they'd done this before. These two reveled on stage in a way that made even my 13-year-old son laugh.

This same 13-year-old son was able to follow the actors' different characters based on their slight changes in costumes, but I had a more difficult time doing so and think that more obvious costume changes (hats?) are needed between characters played by the same actor. Jaye Bullock plays nine characters.

I was really interested in how Emma Szuba has combined these four chronologically connected Shakespeare plays into one full-length production. I think she makes a valiant effort. But I also think that there are too many characters and that the dialogue of the play -- whose Shakespearean nature already taxes the audience's mental capacity -- renders its nearly three-hour performance exhausting.

That said, I highly recommend Scrap Paper Shakespeare's remaining brewery-located performances to parents who are looking for a place to have a drink while doing something productive with their teen or tween children. I was just glad my 13-year-old got some outside-the-book exposure to Shakespeare. Turns out, he thoroughly enjoyed the first act and at times actually explained to me what was going on. His favorite parts were the banter between Falstaff (Foley) and Prince Hal (Schneider). I'm sure that he would attend a performance featuring these two actors' characters alone.

Each ticket to Prince Hal comes with a free drink -- alcoholic or nonalcoholic -- from the brewery hosting the performance. At Gizmo Brew Works, I enjoyed a lovely Kolsch on tap, while my son was super psyched with his canned blueberry-lavender kombucha, which it turns out was something that he'd been looking for, because it was made by one of his schoolmate's uncles.

If you are thinking about it, I am sure it is well worth your evening to grab a drink while attending a remaining Scrap Paper Shakespeare's performance of Prince Hal at a brewery near you, even if you're ready to leave by intermission (there's no harm in doing so). It's a rare injection of Shakespeare in a modern setting akin to the public theaters where his plays were first performed, and you get to have a good drink at a place that you likely have never been before. Win-Win.