Act III scene 1 - Bristol. Before the castle.
Enter HENRY BOLINGBROKE, DUKE OF YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, LORD ROSS, HENRY PERCY, LORD FITZWATER, with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Bring forth these men:
Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls,
Since presently your souls must part your bodies,
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no Charity: yet to wash your blood 5
From off my hands, here in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your deaths.
You have misled a Prince, a Royal King,
A happy Gentleman in Blood and Lineaments,
By you unhappied, and disfigured clean: 10
You have in manner with your sinful hours
Made a Divorce betwixt his Queen and him,
Broke the possession of a Royal Bed
And stain'd the beauty of a fair Queen's Cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs. 15
Myself a Prince, by fortune of my birth,
Near to the King in blood, and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign Clouds, 20
Eating the bitter bread of banishment;
Whilst you have fed upon my Signories,
Razed out my Imprese, leaving me no sign,
Save men's opinions and my living blood,
To show the World I am a Gentleman. 25
This, and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the death: see them deliver'd over
To execution, and the hand of death.
BUSHY
More welcome is the stroke of death to me
Than Bolingbroke to England. 30
GREEN
My comfort is that Heaven will take our souls
And plague Injustice with the pains of Hell.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd:
NORTHUMBERLAND and HARRY PERCY execute the prisoners
Uncle, you say the Queen is at your House;
For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated, 35
Tell her I send to her my kind commends;
Take special care my Greetings be deliver'd.
DUKE OF YORK
A Gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd
With Letters of your love to her at large.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Thanks gentle Uncle: come Lords, away, 40
To fight with Glendower and his Complices;
Awhile to work, and after holiday.
Exeunt
The end of the transition featured Bushy and Green cowering on the ground CS with Bolingbroke and his team surrounding them. Ross and Fitzwater pulled Bushy and Green up from the ground as Bolingbroke and York entered DSL. Northumberland and Percy cleared up towards the center platform; Percy rather enjoyed playing with his dagger throughout this entire scene, like a good medieval war-like creeper.
I chose to keep the executions visible onstage, playing out in the background while Bolingbroke casually talks to his uncle. Northie and Percy grabbed the prisoners and wrangled them up to the center platform; the prisoners fought back and Bushy even landed a few blows on Percy. Northie slit Green's throat, then Percy slit Bushy's. For good measure, Northie stabbed Green, wiped her blade on his shirt, then blew him a kiss and pushed him off the SR edge of the platform.
While Bolingbroke is justified in defending what is his, I find the way he goes about it to be disturbing, and I wanted to demonstrate that this power-grab is uncomfortable. The juxtaposition of the brutal killings with these final lines accomplished this vision (and was a lot of fun to stage).
Drake, playing Bolingbroke, had toyed with the idea of eating something like a kiwi, or drinking from a flask. I'm sad social distancing prevented us from getting that in the recording.