Pirandello’s Henry IV
Plays
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead * Enter a Free Man * • The Real Inspector Hound * After Magritte * • Jumpers * • Travesties * Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land * Every Good Boy Deserves Favour * Night and Day • Dogg’s Hamlet and Cahoot’s Macbeth * The Real Thing • Rough Crossing • Hapgood Arcadia • Indian Ink • The Invention of Love * Voyage: The Coast of Utopia Part I * Shipwreck: The Coast of Utopia Part II * Salvage: The Coast of Utopia Part III *
Television Scripts
A Separate Peace • Teeth • Another Moon Called Earth Neutral Ground • Professional Foul • Squaring the Circle
Radio Plays
The Dissolution of Dominic Boot “M” Is for Moon Among Other Things If You’re Glad, I’ll Be Frank • Albert’s Bridge Where Are They Now? • Artist Descending a Staircase The Dog It Was That Died • In the Native State
Screenplays
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Shakespeare in Love (with Marc Norman)
Fiction
Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon
*Available from Grove Press
Pirandello’s Henry IV
BY LUIGI PIRANDELLO
A NEW VERSION BY TOM STOPPARD
New Version copyright © 2004 by Tom Stoppard
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CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Pirandello’s Henry IV is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.
First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, Drury House, 34–43 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HA, England, ATTN: Kenneth Ewing, and paying the requisite fee, whether the play is presented for charity or gain and whether or not admission is charged.
Printed in the United States of America
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stoppard, Tom.
Pirandello’s Henry IV I by Luigi Pirandello ; a new version by Tom Stoppard.— 1st ed. p. cm.
eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9534-0
1. Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, 1050–1106—Drama. 2. Psychotherapist and patient—Drama. 3. Aristocracy (Social class)—Drama. 4. Italy—Drama. I. Title: Pirandello’s Henry the Fourth. II. Stoppard, Tom. III. Pirandello, Luigi, 1867–1936. Enrico IV. English. V. Title.
PR6069.T6P57 2005
822′.914—dc22
2004063842
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This version was prepared with the help of a literal translation by Francesca Albini, commissioned by the Donmar Theatre, and with further assistance from Simonetta Wenkert. I take sole responsibility for the departures from Pirandello.
Tom Stoppard’s new version of Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello was commissioned by and first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, on April 29, 2004. Michael Grandage, artistic director; Nick Frankfort, executive producer; Tobias Round, general manager. The cast was as follows:
HENRY IV Ian McDiarmid
LANDOLF James Lance
HAROLD Stuart Burt
ORDULF Neil McDermott
BERTOLD Nitzan Sharron
GIOVANNI Brian Poyser
DI NOLLI Orlando Wells
BELCREDI David Yelland
DOCTOR Robert Demeger
MATILDA Francesca Annis
FRIDA Tania Emery
It was directed by Michael Grandage; the designer was Christopher Oram; the lighting design was by Neil Austin; the music and sound score was by Adam Cork; and the sound designer was Fergus O’Hare.
Pirandello’s Henry IV
ACT ONE
The throne room. There are two full-length, life-size modern portraits of a young man and a young woman dressed as Henry IV and Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. HAROLD, LANDOLF, ORDULF, and BERTOLD—wearing the costumes of eleventh-century German knights—enter.
LANDOLF Next—the throne room!
HAROLD The throne room of the Emperor’s Palace at Goslar!
ORDULF Or could be Hartzburg . . .
HAROLD . . . or Worms, depending.
LANDOLF Depending on where we are in the story—he keeps us on the hop.
ORDULF Saxony . . .
HAROLD Lombardy . . .
LANDOLF The Rhine . . .
ORDULF Keep your voice down.
LANDOLF He’s asleep.
BERTOLD Hang about. I’m confused. I thought we were doing Henry IV.
LANDOLF So?
BERTOLD Well, this place, these getups—it’s not him.
ORDULF Who?
BERTOLD The King of France, Henry IV.
LANDOLF Whoops.
ORDULF He thought it was the French one.
LANDOLF Wrong country, mate, wrong century, wrong Henry.
HAROLD It’s the German Henry IV, Salian Dynasty.
ORDULF The