A Hal of a bad night

If it is brave of the Open Air Theatre to have a stab at Shakespeare's history play rather than its usual comic fare, it was sheer folly to cast Jordan Frieda as Prince Hal.

Director Alan Strachan's quaintly old-fashioned production has its moments, mostly funny ones, but from the very start one is aware of the gaping hole at its centre where the anti-hero should be.

Frieda, son of singer Lulu and hairdresser John Frieda, is boy-band handsome and his hair looks predictably good. Who knew highlights were so popular in Tudor times? Celebrity genes are strong in this one, but if there's acting talent there too, it's not of the Shakespearean ilk.

Frieda speaks Hal's lines slowly, as if he's experiencing them for the first time and fears they may do him harm. He is stiff, stilted, and mistakes volume for passion.

His scenes with Christopher Benjamin's Falstaff and Christopher Godwin's King Henry - the opposing influences on Hal's character - are tortuous. You long for him to leave the stage so that these two fine actors can inject either fun or gravitas.

It is Benjamin who occasionally brings the production to life. He is wheeled in on a bed, vast belly ballooning above it like the sail of a ship, but if his guts required extra padding, his hangdog jowls and impish eye make him a natural Falstaff.

Benjamin's comic timing is excellent. He rolls the fat knight's self-serving speeches around in his mouth like fine wine, and speaks with a force that rivals the passing 747s.

Godwin is also good, a fierce, ascetic beanpole of a politician to Falstaff 's bloated opportunist. But his performance illustrates the shortcomings of this venue for certain kinds of plays.

The details of Tudor feuds and betrayals tend to evaporate into the air. This is a complicated play and it's too easy to be distracted from its nuances by the activities of amorous pigeons.

Godwin, and Keith Dunphy as Hal's warlike and none-too-bright opposite number Hotspur, try to grab and hold the attention with serious intent, but they are also hampered by the trappings of Strachan's production.