Chimes at Midnight - Original Stage Productions

Original Stage Productions

Welles's inspiration for Chimes at Midnight can be traced back to 1930 when he was a student at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois. Welles attempted to stage a three and a half hour combination of several of Shakespeare's historical plays called The Winter of Our Discontent in which he played Richard III. School officials eventually forced him to make cuts to the production. The direct origins of Chimes at Midnight began in 1939 when Welles wrote and partially staged the play Five Kings, an ambitious adaptation of several Shakespeare plays that chronicled the stories of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III. The source plays included Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III, a group of historical plays sometimes referred to as the War of the Roses cycle. The grouping of Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V are often referred to as the Henriad.