The other other Brontë – review

'At the height of his power': Ian McKellen, left, as Falstaff, with Geoffrey Freshwater (Bardolph), in Player Kings. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Go for the acting. To see a powerful actor at the height of his power in his 80s, and a young person starting to rise. Robert Icke, the neon-intellectual, fast-paced director who fought his way through Hamlet, Oresteia And 1984has the two separate plays of Henry IV create an epic portrait, Player Kings. The evening is made possible by Falstaff.

Ian McKellen has spoken eloquently and practically about the difficulties of moving around enormous amounts of padding, and of ...