As we settle in for the chilly start of the S25 semester, we at SJU English have lots to look forward to. Watch this space for information about the Annual Grad Student conference (on Sat March 29th), the D’Angelo Chair Lectures by the poet Erica Hunt, (in April), publication dates for Sequoya and the Humanities Review, as well as a celebration of the book featuring our poets from the Whitman on Walls! event from last fall.
First in the lineup, however, in a joint event sponsored by the English Department and the Honors Program, is a trip to see Shakespeare’s Henry IV at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn.
This production, directed by Eric Tucker, the Artistic Director of New York’s Bedlam Theater Company, will combine the two plays Shakespeare wrote as Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 in to one intense multi-intermission night. That means we’ll get the full story of Prince Hal’s transformation. This figure, one of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters, starts out devoted to small beer and petty crimes rather and then becomes, over the course of two plays, the inheritor of his father’s throne.
Does Hal reform himself in order to assume his required political duties? Or is he a monster whose betrayal of Falstaff and his other tavern friends reveals his manipulative nature? Or – perhaps – he is both a monster and skilled political leader, because it turns out that to succeed in leadership requires a touch of cruelty?
Tickets are still available for the night our students are going, on Tuesday 2/18 at 7 pm. All members of the St. John’s community are very welcome – reach out to me (mentzs@stjohns.edu) if you want information!
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