Shakespeare
a few minutes to get used to. The opening gambit, which has the cast members lollygagging about the stage before the Elizabethan text kicks in, is both forced and old-hat. Then the Chorus — one guy, the great Peter Francis James — enters, declaiming “O for a Muse of fire!” with such fervor that it might make you think of the opening “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” chorus of “Godspell.”
Once the adventure actually starts, though, the show settles quickly into a compelling groove, finding consistent rhythms and tones. James, clad in a comfortable cardigan sweater, calms down into an avuncular narrator who’s not a far cry from the Stage Manager in “Our
Town.” The wide open stage, a general lack of sets and props, and communal human energy further the Thornton Wilder comparison. Call it “Our Kingdom.”
Yet this “Henry V” also has the brazen, rough and ready appeal of political theater. It’s Shakespeare, with the sonorous elegant language you expect. But at times it feels like Bertolt Brecht, then like Greek tragedy, then like 1960s protest dramas such as “Viet Rock.”
“Henry V” is a class drama with open warfare. We hear from monarchs, immigrants, soldiers, drunkards. There are some of the most rousing speeches in all of Shakespeare — not just “Once more, into the breach” but also the one about St. Crispin’s Day. There’s also a hilarious argument comparing a mistress and a horse.
The clarity of the show is commendable. Even if you don’t avail yourself of the helpful synopsis and characters-in-order-of-appearance list in the playbill, you’ll find the play easy to follow: Boy meets war, boy wins war, boy meets girl. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour show, but feels half that length.
There are plenty of shocks and surprises, and a great deal of humor considering that “Henry V” is set before, during and after a bloody battle. What really keeps you involved, however, is the range and versatility of the 15-person ensemble, who collectively cover nearly three dozen different roles.
Liam Craig (“Seder” at Hartford Stage) plays a humble, bumbling hulk of a Bardolph as well as a French ambassador and Captain Gower. The reliable Felicity Jones Latta gets steady laughs in supporting roles, whether playing men or women. Evelyn Spahr brings a welcome brightness to every scene she’s in, then caps off that effervescence with a sweet, winsome turn as Katherine, the French princess whom Henry woos. Kate Forbes is an imposing Duke of Burgundy. Baron Vaughn finds strong, confident qualities in Mistress Quickly and also gives voice to an awestruck young warrior. Miles Anderson is both funny and creepy as the hotheaded Pistol.
In the three shows that Elizabeth Williamson has directed at Hartford Stage in the past 19 months, she has varied not just the types of plays she does but the styles in which she does them. Her instincts can seem counterintuitive, but she invariably succeeds. She brought an overt theatricality to “Cloud 9,” somethings which that Caryl Churchill classic does not always inspire. She gave a grand staging to Sarah Gancher’s intimate “Seder,” using a large multi-roomed set and severe sound and lighting effects.
Now she delivers a “Henry V” that is as open and unadorned. The set is the floor, decorated like a world map. The auditorium has been redesigned as an arena stage. It’s all wonderfully disorienting.
“Never was monarch better fear’d and loved than is your majesty,” the Earl of Cambridge tells Henry early in this perilous, provocative play. Hartford Stage brings the fear, the love and — in a roundabout, sneaky manner — the majesty.
HENRY V runs through Nov. 11 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Tickets are $25 to $90. 860-527-5151 and hartfordstage.org.