The history plays are less often revived than the tragedies or the comedies. What attracted you?

I’m personally attracted to the histories, because of what they tell us about things that interest me in the theater — family, fathers and sons, the mix of the great kings and those outsiders at the tavern. These plays felt very Irish to me. Once the lines were in our own voices, the world of Shakespeare — instead of feeling like this distant 16th-century world, this kind of Disney World — felt suddenly very present and very present tense.

Druid doesn’t shy away from lengthy, ambitious projects. But why all of the Henriad?

It tells a somewhat continuous story. In the very first scene in our play we see a young and virile Bolingbroke, who eventually topples Richard II and becomes king himself. And then we’re there at his deathbed five hours later. We’re going to start at the beginning and try and keep you in there until the last light leaves the stage.

Why Mark O’Rowe as the adapter?

He writes brilliant verse and he’s a Shakespeare fanatic. In fact he did a version of “Henry IV, Part 1” many years ago. From the time I had the idea that I wanted the writer to be in the room, Mark was the one.

Can you describe his adaptation?

There are radical decisions, some that were taken by Mark in earlier drafts and some that were only finally taken on the rehearsal room floor. There’s very little in the plays that is not Shakespeare’s words, only to connect what’s absent because of an edit.