With vivid, indelible characters drawn from 15th-century England's civil war, the Adaptation is gripping and epic, exploring timeless questions about legitimate authority and how the private lives of rulers conflict with their public lives. When the play begins, King Henry IV has taken the throne from his cousin Richard. Henry is plagued by guilt and challenged by a rebellion led by the brave Henry Percy (Hotspur). Prince Hal, King Henry's son, is alienated from his father and, rather than assuming the duties of the heir apparent, spends his time in a tavern with the old knight Falstaff, an outlaw, liar, and great wit with insatiable appetites.