Henry V

Henry V
The Zoo, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Group: Te Deum Productions

Stuart Simpson

Henry V is a difficult play to put on in under two hours. Te Deum Productions have made a brave attempt to do so, making a virtue out of a necessity by cutting some scenes and slimming down others that would have made their interpretation of the play problematic.

Te Deum say that their intentions are to contemporise Henry. This isn't merely a production in modern dress, but a production that seeks to take into account the nature of modern warfare, and modern government. In cutting and adapting most of the scenes that show the soldier king, Te Deum hope to distance Henry from the field of battle; the modern leader is not a soldier king.

The production is a little confused as to how they show a modern Henry. Henry speaks from a presidential podium to the assembled press, but instead of being a world leader he seems to be a lowly company director. This trick may work for a short film production of Hamlet, but Henry demands more reach than the king of a nutshell. Henry V concerns the clash of two mighty monarchies: it is difficult for a CEO to pull off the right amount of gravitas.

Having said this, the podium scenes do work well. Henry pronounces in the style of a modern world leader, 'hard…favored…rage'- think Tony Blair 'education, education, education'. The reluctant soldier in the scene before the battle of Agincort is transformed into a press room hack. Henry chides the journalist before taking the podium to deliver his speech on Saint Crispin's Day.

Multimedia is also used to good affect. As the chorus tells the audience that we are skipping four years, a montage of news broadcasts appear on a large screen plasma TV; showing scenes of war mixed in with BBC journalists and the smiling statesman Henry waving to the crowd. The herald now becomes a PA on the other end of a video call, the mayor of Harfleur is merely on speaker phone. These are the scenes where the CEO role makes most sense, with a little leap of imagination.

All this makes for an interesting production, in which individual scenes are shown in a novel light. And it must be said that the lead, Pim Gregory, always seemed in control of his Henry. For an experimental production of Henry V, performed in under two hours the production was in no way disappointing, and offered a lot of food for thought.

But if you know the play at all well, you may feel a little uncomfortable with this production. Henry V is by no way an unambiguous play, but Henry is a soldier king, and he is not comparable to the King of France, whose time has passed, or to the arrogant Dauphin, as seemed to be suggested. The French king's call for peace between France and England are the words of a defeated man hoping for a settled future. These are tragic words as any audience of whatever period will know. Henry has not long to live and the world will again be thrown into chaos. In Te Deum's production the call for peace becomes an indictment against the warmonger Henry.

It is true that when Henry V asks if he has a right to the throne of France and receives the answer, 'The sin on my head, dread sovereign', the implications of the abuse of power, of deceit and hypocrisy are chilling. Henry is no saint, but he isn't the man portrayed in Te Deum's production, or more accurately Henry is more than is portrayed in Te Deum's production. Perhaps showing only one side of Henry is the only way to produce a slimmed down version of the play, and a one sided Henry is still a joy to watch when performed well. But all things considered I like to see a soldier, to see a soldier, to see a king.

3 August to 9 August.