Review: Henry 4.1 by Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project
by Michael Meigs
Stephanie and Mike Crugnola's Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project (WSSP) has put another of Will's finest histories through the Transmogrifier again, once more with exciting results. They don't glue together noted the classics as they did with their 2025 Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra, honored both by the Austin Theatre Critics and the B Iden Payne council. This time they split Henry IV, Part I into three, dubbed it Henry 4.1, and are producing it with a cast of seventeen, the first weekend at the downtown Scottish Rite Theatre and the second to HowMuch? studios in North Austin, just below the intersection of North Lamar Boulevard and Airport Road.
Yeah, when I first heard about it, I was confused too. The company generously invited me and others to their first dress rehearsal a week ago, and now I can elucidate. Their "choose your own adventure" offers a choice of three starting places for the first twenty minutes or so:
The Throne Room where Henry IV, the patriarch mischievously presented as cowboy-hatted Jazmine Noble Graves, is angry both at the heir apparent Prince Hal and at the upstart Hotspur (Harry Percy, aiming to overturn the regime);
The Bunker where Mike Crugnola as the muscular punk Hotspur and supporters conspire; and
The Boar's Head Tavern with the rapscallion antics of Sir John Falstaff (Taylor Flanagan) and Prince Hal (Jesse Ray Payne), who's destined to become Henry V.
Expect iPhones, testy video conferences in iambic pentameter, media with breaking news, and lots of swagger. You'll then adjourn to the open floor of the theater, grouping according to your choices, where the rest is played out, eventually in the grand clash of the Battle of Shrewsbury. At dress rehearsal we were treated to all three openings, in sequence, which extended the experience to three hours; since you'll attend only one of those initial venues, you can count on a run time of closer to two.
WSSP goes full anachronism in format but faithfully rides Shakespeare's story and text, producing a thrilling, occasionally discombobulating but thoroughly satisfying experience. It helps to know the play, for this story comes at you hot and heavy. Consider checking the Wikipedia plot summary before you go.
This is powerfully imagined theatre. I found it immediate and intensely relevant, particularly since we saw it only days before the U.S. election. WSSP offers no simplistic parallels to our own national dilemma. It delves deeper than that. Henry 4.1 is concerned with establishing legitimacy of rule, transmission of mandate, resistence to tyranny, negotiations of the powerful, overcoming personal flaws, the concepts of honor and its opposite, and—eventually—the violence of heroic adversaries. Only a curmudgeon would see this as abuse of the text, for WSSP brings the classic alive and makes it accessible, including to those more likely to dwell on Instagram than in the Arden Shakespeare.
As for the principals—Graves as the steely monarch, Payne as Hal, Crugnola as Hotspur—under Stephanie Crugnola's direction, all deliver their lines clearly and eloquently, with actions and attitudes that take us out of the confines of mere mortal time. The diverse and confident supporting cast impresses. And do not miss a moment of Taylor Flanagan's Falstaff. The "fat knight" as played by unapologetically slim, crewcut Flanagan is at every moment a delight, both as character and as clown. Her blindingly swift, unendingly inventive business gives credit to the actor, the director, and to WSSP both as company and concept.
WSSP's use of the entire apparatus of the nineteenth-century Scottish Rite building just behind the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum is reminiscent of the approach of Beth Burns's Hidden Room to a similar classic building down on 7th Street. WSSP outdoes HR, however, by claiming for simultaneous use the stage itself as the tavern, the upstairs formal meeting room with its throne, and a starkly windowess basement space. That's for the first round; the second round at the North Austin location is bound to be equally intriguing.
Saddle up, friends, for a swift ride into a memorable adventure.
EXTRA
Click to view the full program for WSSP's Henry 4.1
Henry 4.1
by William Shakespeare, adapted by Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project
Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project
Austin Scottish Rite Theater
Nov 6, 20, 21, 2026: 8:00 p.m.
Nov 7: 6 p.m. - featuring live sets from three Austin bands
Nov 9, 21, 22: 3:30 p.m.
Ticket Link: Henry 4.1 (Scottish Rite Theater)
How Much?! Studios
Nov 11, 12, 13, 2026: 8:00 p.m.
Ticket Link: Henry 4.1 (How Much?! Studios)
Tickets $10
[poster design by Ishaq Fahim]
