Henry IV at St. Ann’s Warehouse was a distinctly different experience than the opera and the ballet. While both the opera and the ballet had a highly formal atmosphere and followed past formulas quite closely,  this performance of Henry IV deviated significantly from the expectations of a Shakespeare play. I appreciated the all-women cast (after all, Shakespeare used to be performed only by men, so why not let women have a turn?) but the setting, a women’s prison, seemed a shaky premise to me.  Besides the fact that this premise did not provide any additional substance to the overall plot, it was not evenly maintained throughout the show. Large intervals would pass until the guards would intercede in some altercation, reminding the audience that it was a prison after all.

Although I saw no reason why the play had to take place in a women’s prison, I did find the overall performance to be engaging and pleasantly offbeat. The austere environment (especially in contrast to the opulence of Lincoln Center) and smaller theater provided an intimacy to the show that was not present at Lincoln Center. Adding to this intimacy were the moments in which the actors directly interacted with audience members which also provided comic relief.