Reader Reviews
Henry V (Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon)
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 | Shakespeare's Henry V, which at one time was usually staged as a full-blown tribute to patriotism and to heroism in battle, embodied in the victories at Harfleur and Agincourt, but productions of which now more often question the very idea of nationalism and are specifically anti-war, is actually a far more complex play that either of these interpretations imply, and one of the glories of Michael Boyd's RSC production is that it reveals the contradictions at the heart of the piece (which were entirely deliberate on the part of its author) to the full. The ambivalence with which it is to be treated is apparent from the very first, for Forbes Masson (a superb Chorus) delivers the opening lines with a dourness and a hint of irony (the impact of which is not lessened by the more purely humorous touches he also includes - for example, the "three and a half hourglass). And that ambivalence is captured most comprehensively – as indeed it should be – by Henry V himself, in a very fine performance by Geoffrey Streatfeild, who subsumes his inner doubts about the morality of what he is doing (he is clearly still haunted by the way in which his father, and hence ultimately he himself, gained the throne) beneath not only the stirring speeches with which he leads his soldiers into war but also the ruthlessness with which he pursues it. Even as he woos Alexia Healy's Princess Katherine in the lighter moments at the end of the play, we are reminded of the casualties of the war which has just been fought by the setting in which this episode takes place. The production is brilliantly staged and, in common with the other plays in the RSC's The Histories cycle, uses the whole of the auditorium. The sound of an immense explosion signals the onset of Harfleur, and is accompanied by the simultaneous bursting up through the stage of the English army, whilst at Agincourt the French nobles are about to sweep down on their opponents from the flies when they are "unhorsed" by white streamers that arc across the stage, representing the arrows of the English bowmen. There is also excellent acting from the whole ensemble, with other particularly notable performances coming from John Mackay as the Dauphin and Lex Shrapnel as the sceptical English soldier Michael Williams. The moral ambiguity in this interpretation sits very well in the context of The Histories cycle as a whole, for of course, despite Henry V's triumphs, England descends into chaos again on his death, but I would stress that this absorbing and exciting production also stands on its own, and that it arguably represents Shakespeare's own ideas when writing the play more faithfully than any other I have seen. - Janet Polson | 05 Feb 08 |
