Rose Rage

The Duke on 42nd Street presents the Chicago Shakespeare Company’s production of Rose Rage. The show is a startlingly blunt retelling of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, and traces the monumental events surrounding England’s collapse in the 15th c. from the untimely death of warrior-king Henry V, through the deterioration of his French conquests in the hands of his son Henry VI, the slow broiling of York’s rebellion, and the eruption of the Wars on the Roses, one of England’s bloodiest civil wars. Battle scenes and murders are mimed before a background of literal butchery, with raw meat and red cabbage serving as metaphors for the intense violence of royal disputes.

The American production of Rose Rage has an all male cast of Chicago-based actors, many who have been featured in other Chicago Shakespeare Theater productions. Edward Hall directs this adaptation by Hall & Roger Warren.

Running Time: 5 hr. 30 min. (includes 2 intermissions and a 1hr. 15min. dinner break)