Shakespeare's Henry VI "House of York" (part 2 of 16) Video

The English Shakespeare Company adapted the three Henry VI plays to Henry VI "House of Lancaster", and Henry VI "House of York".

"The Wars of the Roses" (English Shakespeare Company, UK, 1990) is a direct filming, from the stage, of Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington's 7-play sequence based on Shakespeare's history plays.

Michael Pennington as Jack Cade
Paul Brennen as Henry VI
Sion Probert Duke of Somerset
June Watson as Margaret of Anjou
Clyde Pollitt as Lord Say

All performances were recorded at the Swansea Theatre.

from blurb on videotape:

Shakespeare's history cycle recounts the story of two great dynasties, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York, who contested their rights to the crown across nearly two centuries of murder, intrigue, rebellion, counter-rebellion, and bloody battle culmination at last in the Battle of Bosworth and the accession of Henry Tudor to the throne.

The great battles of Agincourt, Tewkesbury, and Bosworth; the poetry of love, the treachery of power politics, and the unease of crownèd heads--in short, Shakespeare's history plays--are here presented by the English Shakespeare Company in performances hailed for bringing to life the history as well as the plays.