Ian Merrill Peakes and Karen Peakes.

Though Henry VIII isn’t a particularly common Shakespearean work to be staged by local theaters, it is still likely that many audience members are already familiar with the king’s story. Thanks to pop cultural influences ranging from “The Tudors” to The Other Boleyn Girl, the machinations of the mercurial king are pretty well-known, even if some people have received their history lesson from Scarlett Johansson rather than the Bard.

So learning the story of Henry VIII won’t be the major draw for Folger’s current production of the drama. The play’s language isn’t Shakespeare at his best, either; though Folger has done an admirable job streamlining the show, this play is full of political speak and tedious back-and-forth discussion — much of it of the self-justification variety, as Henry looks to defend his attraction to Boleyn, his desire for a male heir and his impatience with his ever-faithful wife. There’s lots of maneuvering, and not a lot of action.

But fortunately (and frequently) with Folger, the performances prove worth the investment of time in Henry VIII. Chief among the attractions is Naomi Jacobson, who makes a formidable tragic heroine out of Queen Katherine, who may be true to her king, but also is no doormat in Jacobson’s steely interpretation. Ian Merrill Peakes cemented his status as a riveting antihero in 2008’s Macbeth, and here he is a commanding, masculine presence as a king in denial.