Soldiers across the centuries to be honoured in play
Award-winning theatre company Antic Disposition will reprise their acclaimed production of Henry V for its fourth year at Durham Cathedral from October 1516.
As the largest theatrical tour of English cathedrals ever undertaken, this will be Antic Disposition’s longest and most wide-ranging UK tour to date. By the end of 2018, the production will have visited 20 of England’s 42 cathedrals.
Coinciding with the centenary of the First World War Armistice on November 11, Henry V will conclude with a special run at William Shakespeare’s burial place, Holy Trinity Church, in Stratfordupon-Avon.
Antic Disposition’s re-imagining is set in a French military hospital in 1915 – 500 years after the Battle of Agincourt – where two groups of wounded French and British soldiers decide to raise their spirits by staging their own production of Henry V.
Performed by an international cast of 12 British and French actors, this production celebrates the rich and often turbulent historical relationship between England and France, from the Hundred Years War to the Entente Cordiale.
In a powerful tribute to the young soldiers caught up in conflicts five centuries apart, Antic Disposition’s Henry V moves between 1415 and 1915.
This adaptation combines Shakespeare’s epic history play with original songs and live music inspired by the po- etry of AE Housman, specially composed by Christopher Peake.
This production also features an arrangement of Housman’s The Lads in their Hundreds by George Butterworth, a young English composer who was himself killed in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Directors Ben Horslen and John Risebero said: “Over the last four years this production has been a constant feature in our lives, and as the centenary of the Great War comes to a close, it feels fitting that we revive it once more to mark the end of the conflict.”
Tickets from www.henry-v.co.uk.