Henry V
2015: Gregory Doran

This is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s series of productions, and directed by the veteran Gregory Doran. Among recent RSC productions, which have ranged from the adequate to the ridiculous, this is a standout. Played on a thrust stage, it requires virtually nothing by way of sets; the costuming is deliberately and somewhat obscurely timeless — Henry wears a tunic and armor as one might have done in his day; some of his officers look like field officers in World War I. Weapons include bows and swords, but also what looks like an eighteenth-century dueling pistol, and, at one point, a World War II era hand grenade. I’m sure there’s some reason for the whimsical anachronisms, but I’m not sure what it is. Nevertheless, the production treats its material with respect, and does not dally with some of the absurdities that have afflicted others (Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice come to mind) of the same series.

The production is of a piece with the previous year’s Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, also directed by Doran. Many of the actors are playing the same roles, including (most importantly) Henry himself.

The keynote of the production is first sounded in the opening speech of the Chorus. Oliver Ford Davies shuffles onto stage in casual trousers and a sweater, fiddles with a prop crown, and looks vaguely perplexed when a stage hand takes it from him; but when he begins to speak, he is electrifying. Unlike Derek Jacobi’s performance of the role in the Branagh’s Henry V (emphasizing words rather randomly, especially the inexplicably explosive “our play” with which his speech concludes), he exhorts the audience to supply their imaginations as if he were just thinking of it, but with animation and deliberation. It is easily the finest performance of the Chorus’ role I have encountered.

As with any performance of this play, the central burden of credibility falls upon Henry himself. His Henry is not as exaggerated as Olivier’s or Branagh’s, but reserved, private, and thoughtful. We get to see his inner view only in the nighttime dialogue and soliloquy before Agincourt, and he shows the complexity of his makeup, complete with insoluble conflicts of conscience, without going to one extreme or the other. Despite his reserve, he is capable of nuance and tonal variation; his performance deserves comparison with Jamie Parker’s eerily two-dimensional portrayal in the Globe production of 2013. The larger speeches are rhetorically more persuasive, and their pitch corresponds with the content as they approach their climax. As with almost any stage performance, they are not supported by a mood-enhancing musical score, but they have the inner strength to carry their message. This is no mean achievement. His recital of the names of the dead after Agincourt is awe-inspiring, as we see the weight of the whole consequence of the battle settling on Henry; the wooing of Alice is an excellent balance of the proud and the diffident, and Katherine seems somewhat sterner and more intelligent than often appears.

Many of the supporting parts are noteworthy as well. Pistol is played by Antony Byrne, who was Antony in the RSC Antony and Cleopatra, Kent in King Lear, and the old Duke in As You Like It. He’s a veteran who carries the complexities of the part well. Joshua Richards’ Fluellen is comical, but not merely so: he also carries a genuine pride and patriotism that one can believe in. Katherine and Alice have excellent French pronunciation, and their tormented representation of English is amusing, but not grotesquely barked or howled out merely to provoke laughter (as they are in the Globe version). The role of Queen Isabel is also given many of the lines of the Duke of Burgundy. She is carried by the long-term Shaksepearean Jane Lapotaire, who almost forty years before had played Lady Macbeth in the BBC Macbeth, and a number of other roles. It is a small role here, but she carries it with grace and dignity conveying the complex of relief and grief that has overtaken the French court.

All in all, this is a production that regards the seriousness and the comedy of the play, and supports all the roles with nuance. I can highly recommend this version to any audiences without reservation. For a representation of a stage performance, it is (I think) the hands-down winner to date.

Buy Henry V on DVD from Amazon.

Buy Henry V on BluRay from Amazon.