Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth

Never, in all the years since the introduction of the art known as theatre, have the dramatic works of a single person achieved the popularity and cultural transcendency that is so characteristic of the plays by William Shakespeare. The monumental popularity that has led to countless productions of all his plays, on stage and, more recently, on film, nearly all has led to a collection of interpretations on Shakespeare’s work by men and women that have been influenced by almost half a millennia of tumultuous history.

Perhaps the most influential event that can affect all aspects of society, including the artistic community, is war. William Shakespeare’s Henry V, itself written in a war-plagued time of English history, with the Earl Of Essex’s impending invasion of Ireland (Maus, 717), revolves around an earlier event of war, the legendary victory of England’s warrior-king, Henry V, over the French forces in the Battle of Agincourt. The play, written in a time of war, about a time of war, has seen many interpretations, one of the more popular of which Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film adaptation was written at the height of World War II.

A new production is now underway, continuing with theme of real world events influencing the presentation of the play, the most notable feature being the novel setting of the play: Vietnam, in the late 1960’s. As opposed to many previous productions of the play, which preserved the 15th century time setting, this production is set in the 1960’s, with a-play-within-a-play motif throughout the performance, as American soldiers perform the play in front of other American soldiers as part of some recreational pause from the madness of war, which is in turn played in front of the true, contemporary audience. The presentation of Henry V in such a unique manner allows deeper analysis of the war-time motivations of the characters in the play, the real audience being fully aware of any comparisons between the English campaign and the American campaign, made more poignant by the constant presence of the pseudo-audience, men involved directly in the latter. We can also observe different aspects of the play’s protagonist, King Henry, that would be absent in more traditional presentations of Henry V.

Some justification for this unorthodox method of presenting a Shakespearean play seems to be in order. Although immensely rich in his language and showing painstaking attention to his characters, Shakespeare’s stage direction is decidedly spartan, usually only a simple indication of when a character enters and exits.