By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 6 April 2024, opens 11 April and runs through 22 June 2024 RUNTIME: 220 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

McKellen (Mother Goose, Duke Of York’s Theatre) dons a fatsuit and gives the performance of a lifetime as Falstaff in writer/director Robert Icke’s (Oresteia and Hamlet, Almeida) combination of Shakespeare’s  Henry IV parts 1 and 2.

• Read on for reasons including how you should grab the chance to see McKellen on stage while you have the chance

Icke told The Stage when at university he attended a talk given by McKellen who said he wanted to play Romeo and Juliet’s Mercutio as an older man who wouldn’t accept his time was up and so hung out with the younger guys.

Icke disagreed but felt the character he was describing was Falstaff.

Player Kings opens like a Guy Ritchie film in modern-day dress in an Eastcheap whorehouse as Falstaff awakes in a chair and casts his eyes across the bare buttocks of Toheeb Jimoh’s (Romeo and Juliet, Almeida) Hal who is lying face down beside him.

We’ve never heard the audience laugh so much with any character as the cowardly conman Falstaff with McKellen drawing on his season in pantomime to display exquisite comedy timing as he consistently lies about his mostly dishonest intentions.

Jimoh’s wide-eyed and innocent Hal is the revelation here and although these are qualities he brought to a similar Romeo at the Almeida last summer he is so good here that we’d love to see him challenged even more in a role like Hamlet.

For those unfamiliar with the story Richard Coyle (Ink, Almeida) plays Henry IV whose legitimacy is being questioned and he in turn has concerns about the company his son has fallen in with and whether his behaviour is in keeping with the heir to the throne.

Icke’s productions have often started at the Almeida and this production’s brick-walled backdrop although in the heart of London’s West End reminds us of the beauty of that north London venue and we wonder whether this piece was initially conceived to start its life there.

Often there is a strategically placed chair in the audience’s view to remind of the stakes as leader of the country.

Icke’s work is often renowned for its generous length and this production doesn’t disappoint, staying faithful to its source material despite its occasional burst of a near Prodigy-sounding soundtrack and modern-day nods.

But the time simply flies by when the laughs are this plentiful and the story of a rogue leading the future king astray and then enduring his own tragedy so captivating.

McKellen is 85 in May and who knows when his theatre career will face its final curtain. See him now in this role of a lifetime while you still have the chance.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Delfont Mackintosh
• Have you seen a show starring Sir Ian McKellen before and what did you think of this production? Tickets
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