When Duncan Frost set out to bring one of his favorite Shakespeare plays to audiences this summer, there were a couple of obstacles to overcome in anticipating their response.

The first: That play is a history – “Henry IV” – and it’s the first history that’s ever been performed for Key City Public Theatre’s (KCPT) popular annual Shakespeare in the Park program. The second: Frost is setting that history in a modern, pre-apocalyptic world.

“Everyone has a lot of thoughts about what those two things are,” he said.

Some say, “Oh, it’s a history play – dry, dusty, boring history.” Others may pounce on the word “apocalyptic,” and their imaginations jump to a world that is “post” catastrophe, imagining zombies and scenes from “Mad Max,” Frost said.

In his production of “Henry IV” the Seattle-based actor and director, who has been working with KCPT since 2014, said he aims to present a show that’s relevant and alive, and that specifically takes place in a world moving toward the brink of collapse.

ON THE CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR

Aside from it being a Shakespeare favorite of his – along with “Much Ado About Nothing” – another reason that Frost suggested “Henry IV, Part 1” as KCPT’s 2017 summer show is that it offers a good dose of comedy, which has become somewhat expected at the annual event.

It’s the most accessible of all of Shakespeare’s history plays, he said, and to make it even more accessible to a modern audience, he edited the text to fit his vision.“We cut about 30 percent of the play,” he said.

Frost noted that when the play was first performed in the 1600s, the history that it portrayed was from 200 years before that time, and therefore familiar to its audience.

“It’s the way that we would talk about leaders à la the American Revolution,” Frost said. The battle places mentioned would have the same resonance with that audience as Gettysburg does for us.

Now, with the text nearly 400 years old, those historical references don’t have the same resonance with a modern audience.

So, what Frost cut were historical references that didn’t necessarily serve the play. “I kept the things that make it immediate,” he said. “I have a cutting of it that’s pretty light and lean and quick.”

WHY PRE-APOCALYPSE?

At the start of “Henry IV, Part 1,” Henry Bolingbroke has just usurped the crown from Richard II, and has only a tenuous grasp on kingship. There’s treachery on every border, and varying degrees of support from those he rules. He’s an illegitimate king, according to the formal rules of succession.

It is a world, Frost said, that’s on the brink of collapse.“That’s what makes it pre-apocalyptic,” he said. “They’re trying to hold onto a society that is starting to tremble.”

In bringing this world to life, Frost envisioned a set and costuming that are recognizably modern and identifiable, but have a futuristic touch, he said. Characters wear mismatched, modern clothes. There’s a robbery scene in which characters wear superhero masks. The set is an industrial city in disarray, starting to crumble on the sides of the stage.

Setting the play in a pre-apocalyptic world also was a more active choice, Frost said, since the stakes are higher.

“There’s something to try to save, there’s something to try to hold together … there’s something worth fighting for,” he said. “That looming threat of apocalypse is something that can really fuel a vision,” he said.

And if all of Shakespeare’s history plays were set within this world Frost has imagined? Then, he said, the apocalypse would be “Henry VI.” The post-apocalypse, “Richard III.”

RELEVANT

“In our world, this would be the play that is coming on the heels of the current administration in the United States,” he said. It taps into today’s political uncertainty.

At the same time, however, Frost said it’s important to remember that the world it portrays is not our own, even though it is still relevant. “I think Shakespeare, when done right, is always timely,” he said. That timeliness, he said, is born out of themes that run throughout the plays, and in his adaption, he’s aimed to highlight those themes.

One aspect he always considers when directing a play is, “What questions does it leave the audience with?” he said. And in this play, those questions come from themes such as power and politics, family and honesty.

Honor, specifically, is a significant theme in the play: From simply defining honor (and each character has his or her own interpretation, he said) to exploring who has honor, how you can gain honor and how you can hold onto it.

And at the core of the play, Frost said, is “a lot of heart.” It’s about the connection between people, whether they be king and prince, father and daughter, husband and wife. “There are so many relationships that exist in the play,” he said, “so much love and passion.” And while one doesn’t always associate love and passion with a “history,” Frost said, those are at the heart of this play.