Theater Review: 'Tug of War' streamlines Shakespeare's game of thrones

Chicago — “I had an Edward, till a Richard kill’d him; I had a Harry, till a Richard kill’d him.  Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill’d him; thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill’d him.”

And you wonder why Shakespeare’s history plays tend to confuse modern audiences?

All the more reason to applaud Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where artistic director Barbara Gaines is making sense of this and similar speeches in “Tug of War,” through which Chicago Shakes is presenting six Bard history plays over the course of twelve hours.

To be precise, “Tug of War” entails two six-hour, three-play immersions, amplified by four musicians playing selections tilted toward 1960s anti-war songs.

This past May, Chicago Shakes brought us “Tug of War: Foreign Fire,” focusing on war abroad as presented through “Edward III,” “Henry V” and “Henry VI: Part One.”

Through Oct. 9, the chickens come home to roost in “Tug of War: Civil Strife.”  Reuniting most of the cast from “Foreign Fire,” it focuses on civil wars back home, as seen through the second and third parts of “Henry VI” as well as “Richard III.”

One need not have caught the first half of this extravaganza to enjoy binge watching its sequel.

Credit Gaines’ commitment to unpacking speeches like the one above.  That’s made possible by cutting minor squabbles and characters so she can focus on key familial relations — as well as their devastating consequences for a kingdom when the families involved include kings and lords.  It also doesn’t hurt that Gaines takes the long view, giving us the time we need to grasp what makes such characters tick.

Take Queen Margaret (Karen Aldridge), for example, who offers the above-quoted observation about those dead Neds, Dicks and Harrys.

We first meet her as the young and sensuous lover of an English duke (John Tufts), witness her becoming queen when she marries Henry VI (Steven Sutcliffe), watch her morph into a fierce warrior leading Henry’s armies against Richard of York (Larry Yando) and last see her as the aging prophetess cursing Richard’s son, the infamous Richard III (an outstanding Timothy Edward Kane).

Or let’s take Richard III himself, who we first meet in “Henry VI, Part Two” as a young warrior in his father’s army.

Dashing and athletic despite his hunched back, Kane’s Richard is gradually warped by circumstance rather than his body.  Supping on horrors and increasingly steeped in hate, he becomes a crazed tyrant who can’t shut up; even though Kane speaks ever faster, Richard has ever less to say.

There’s no place in such a maelstrom for a weak king like Henry, movingly played by Sutcliffe as a man who really means it when he tells us “was never subject long’d to be a king as I do long and wish to be a subject.”

Nor is the England presented here much of a place for women; playing Richard III’s mother, a cross-dressed Sutcliffe is among those driving that point home.

So do Elizabeth Ledo and Heidi Kettenring as Lady Anne and Elizabeth Woodville, respectively; in compelling, mirrored scenes, a misogynistic, contemptuously confident Richard woos them, underscoring how limited their options are.

Options are generally scarce in “Tug of War”; what we get instead is repetition.  Sons thirsting for revenge repeat the sins of their fathers.  Kings look on helplessly as their soldiers prepare for battle.  We hear wan versions of once-rousing speeches; a seemingly heroic past gives way to a hollow present.

“Why don’t we learn from our history?, Gaines asks in a program note.  Good question, posed repeatedly in “Tug of War.”  Having watched war dash dreams and ruin lives for six more hours Sunday afternoon, that was the question tugging at me as I drove home Sunday night.

IF YOU GO

“Tug of War: Civil Strife” continues through Oct. 9 at the Courtyard Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave. (on Navy Pier), Chicago.  For tickets, visit www.chicagoshakes.com. To read more about this production, go to TapMilwaukee.com.