Prince Hal goes to Chicago

On a perfect summer’s day by the Avon it was the turn of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to take the stage at the Swan

It was really rather a surprise to stumble across Shakespeare in his native tongue after the revelatory pleasures (I do not jest) of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a cornucopia of Indian languages and of Titus Andronicus in a phenomenally eloquent guttural Japanese. On a perfect summer’s day by the Avon it was the turn of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to take the stage at the Swan for its contribution to the RSC’s international exploration of the complete works of the bard. My only previous experience of Shakespeare performance on the other side of the pond has been Vancouver’s immensely enjoyable ‘Bard on the Beach’ summer festival held in tents on the very shore of the Pacific. The prospect of a Chicago company showing its paces suggested something rather grittier — the programme speaks of the city rearing actors who are ‘stormy’, ‘husky’ and ‘brawling’ — but in the event the experience wasn’t quite like that.