Henry IV, part 2. The Shakespeare Theatre, 450 7th St., Washington, D.C. Tues-Sat, Wed, Sat & Sun matinees, through May 2. Tickets $16 - $66.

The Shakespeare Theatre has achieved its reputation with textually faithful and well-acted productions of both well-known and obscure items from the classical canon. Their current production of Henry IV, Part 2, while falling short of brilliance, maintains their reputation by taking up the challenge of one of Shakespeare's least audience-friendly works.

Henry IV, part 2 is not the easiest of the bard's plays to handle. For one thing, it's long - three hours and twenty minutes, in director Bill Alexander's nearly-uncut presentation. The meandering, character-centered plot lacks much by way of drive and resolution, and its reliance on sixteenth-century humor can leave modern audiences out in the cold.

The main story concerns the mopping up of the civil uprising that began in Henry IV, Part 1, and the transfer of power from Henry IV to his sometime-prodigal son, Prince Hal. Problematically, most of the action follows Falstaff, Hal's comic sidekick, through an episodic subplot that is only loosely tied to the primary plot. The titular king, Henry IV, actually appears in only two scenes.

The comic plot is where this production really shines. Floyd King and Emery Battis are in excellent humor, as always, as the rather batty justices Shallow and Silence; Nancy Robinette and Naomi Jacobson are brazen and bawdy as Falstaff's Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet, and Andrew Long swaggers through as the just-far-enough over-the-top Ancient Pistol.

But the highlight of the show is Shakespeare Theatre veteran Ted van Griethuysen's star turn as the delightfully dissipated knight Sir John Falstaff. Van Griethuysen breathes life into the bard's rather dusty bollocks-humor as few actors today can, while his radiant voice and body language capture the poetry of the text and the pathetic spectacle of a lifelong drunk sailing recklessly into what is likely to be his final debauch.

The serious part of the plot, sadly, is not so graced. Keith Baxter, as King Henry IV, and Christopher Kelly, as his wayward son Prince Hal, both turn in credible performances, but neither seems able to muster the fire and passion that would convey the importance of this drama of kingly succession to a modern audience.

While the story of the Prince Hal's succession contains several of Shakespeare's most beautiful and memorable scenes, a preponderance of atypically weak and generalization-laden acting from the supporting cast reinforces the natural tendency of the play to feel meandering and unfocused. Designer Ruari Murchison's very traditional sets and costumes are spare and elegant, seldom distracting from the action, but also adding little to the interpretation.

The task of making the sense of the mess is left to the Falstaff and his crew, who try valiantly, but can only tell half the story. At it's heart, Henry IV, Part 2 is a play about the pain of abandoning frivolity and accepting responsibility. In order to justify the three-hours traffic of the stage, a production must present both the debauchery of Falstaff's carnivalesque mock-court and the honor-bound rigidity of Henry IV's real one with equal truthfulness. Sadly, that never quite happens.

Still, despite its flaws, the production is still worth watching for audiences interested in seeing a clearly-told interpretation of one of Shakespeare's lesser-known works. For those who lack a scholarly interest in the text, it is still worth catching, just to see van Griethuysen's take on one of literature's great characters.