H4

H4 (2014)

H4 translates Shakespeare's Henry IV plays to contemporary Los Angeles to explore political struggles in the community. By killing a popular black leader, Henry hopes to cement his family's political dynasty, but his reckless son, Hal, seems more interested in hijinks than politics. Will the "Prince of Watts" follow in the footsteps of his powerful father, or will he succumb to the criminal life championed by Falstaff? Performed in Shakespeare's original language, H4 will appeal to Shakespearean aficionados and newcomers alike.

Date of release
2014-02-01
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 52m
Director
Paul Quinn

Casting

Interesting facts

H4 is a 2012 independent American film adaptation of Shakespeare's two Henry IV plays, produced by actor Harry Lennix who also stars in the title role, and directed by Paul Quinn and Dwain Perry. The film premiered at the 2012 Conference of the Shakespeare Association of America, and showed in competition at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival in 2013. The Shakespeare Association of America called it, "English history reborn into the African American now."

Development Background and Production

The screenplay was adapted by Dr. Ayanna Thompson, Professor of English at Arizona State University, who holds a PhD in English from Harvard and her master's degree from Sussex University. Lennix has said, "I was very lucky in finding Ayanna Thompson." The script retains most of Shakespeare's original language while condensing the duration and changing place names and factional nationalities to fit the new setting.

Production Design is by Lytel Young, and Costumes by Heather Capps.

Lennix had participated in Shakespeare symposiums previously, written articles on Shakespeare and race and contemporary relevance, and with Laurence Fishburne for years before the film had had numerous conversations and debates about Shakespeare, race, and performance. Lennix has said in interview:

"There are a lot of people who would think that Othello is a black Shakespeare film, but it's not. Othello is about one black guy in the midst of a bunch of people in Venice. So it's not really a black Shakespeare film. What I mean by black Shakespeare film is that for the first time, to my knowledge, on film, we have taken a Shakespearian play and placed in a recognizably black world experience.

Lennix said, "This film stands up to scholastic critique because we had scholars working on it from start to finish."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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