This Henry V requires some heavy lifting
For years, the Shaw and Stratford Festivals had an unspoken agreement — you stick to your guy, and we’ll stick to ours.
If you wanted to see Shakespeare, you went to Stratford. If you wanted Shaw, you went to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Of course, no contract was signed. Stratford broke ranks first with a production of Shaw’s “Caesar and Cleopatra” in 2008 starring Christopher Plummer. A decade later, the Shaw and Shakespeare-savvy artistic director Tim Carroll have finally responded.
Unfortunately, by the end of this taxing version of “Henry V,” you’ll wish you had seen one of the seven productions of it Stratford has done instead. Carroll, along with co-director Kevin Bennett, don’t fully commit to the bard, making his 1599 (or thereabouts) play about England’s young king setting out to conquer France during the Hundred Years War as a play-withina-play.
In this case, it’s more standard Shaw fare: A group of Canadian soldiers hunkered down in a dugout during the First World War are rehearsing the play for an upcoming performance. They all take on multiple roles except for Gray Powell, who only plays the king.
This format is always a risk, as audiences may lean more towards one story over the other. In this case, the Shakespeare can be a slog to get through, especially if you have never seen “Henry V” before and aren’t familiar with who’s who, and who’s doing what. Even during its time, “Henry V” was preceded by three other plays establishing the main character. Filtering this already verbose work with dozens of characters through another play, in which the characters are performing it and talking about it at once, is juggling a lot of balls. And some land with a thud.
The first act takes place in a dugout as the men pretend to be in one war while actually in another. Powell leads a strong cast that includes Ric Reid, Patrick Galligan and Graeme Somerville, manoeuvring through the thick verbiage while looking beaten down and exhausted from the front. (This also completes a trilogy of shows this season marking the 100th anniversary of the war’s end.)
They drop the Shakespeare
when they have to suit up and join the fray again, leading to intermission. When we resume, they’re all in hospital, nursing wounds. One of them (Reid) is absent, presumably dead. Another (Damien Atkins) is comatose. They’re all broken and bleeding, but with the help of
four nurses (Julia Course, Yanna McIntosh, Natasha Mumba and Claire Jullien) are determined to get through their “Henry V.”
Some amusing moments surface, as when Course goes off script to wonder “Why don’t I know you’re the king?” to Powell during Act III of “Henry V” when the king wanders among his soldiers before what appears to be a hopeless battle. “Because I’m in disguise,” answers Powell.
Themes of Shakespeare’s play mirror what’s happening to them in 1918, and indeed, many modern adaptations of “Henry V” take place during the First World War. But the gut punch moments fall short, as we aren’t given enough about the Canadian soldiers to know who they are and what they bring to the battlefield.
Strange as it seems, this “Henry V” could actually use less Shakespeare, more Shaw.