Henry V with Grads at the New Fortune

Henry V with Grads at the New Fortune

A rambling review by Alicia Smith

Shakespeare fans and theatre goers in general are in for a treat with Grad's production of Henry V if last night's performance was anything to go by.

I don't generally extort viewers to buy the program, but in this case I was really impressed it. A good lot of background information of the times politically, and synopsis of the preceding connected plays helps us orient ourselves - a boon to a modern audience who may not have seen the others. A bit like seeing Return of the King without the other two, with the added burden of the language not being as acessible. The program very much increased my enjoyment of the play. You don't need it, but it is very good.

The wonderful Chorus (Sonia Marcon) instructed us to  "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts." Well, we didn't need to do much piecing...there weren't a lot of imperfections. The minimalist set, through lighting and wisps of smoke become ports and battlefields, castles and palaces just by the power of suggestion.

This Chorus was more like a knowlegeable and familiar friend and guide, leading us through the narrative with humour and warmth, happily met along the way. We were all glad to see her whenever she came on.

King Henry, played by Christopher McInnes, is a man who has left the silliness of his wild days behind him.  Christopher plays him as a man under tight control, with gravity and intensity...a youth no more. There's a little playfulness during the courtship, but it's muted.

The real Henry was injured by an arrow in the face as a youth and was probably scarred by it, which makes his courting of Princess Katherine (Ciume Lochner) interesting in the play when he tells her at least his face isn't going to get any worse with age!

Henry V is a complex play, it's a series of flashes, really, interspersed with the main narrative of what's going on with Henry himself. Flash! Here are the French nobles, arogantly boasting of their horses prowess! Flash! Here's the conspirators of the Southampton Plot (Really happened, by the way, but Mortimer, who was the guy they were going to use to replace Henry, told him about it as soon as he heard!) Flash! Pistol and Nym arguing. Flash! Princess Katherine and Alice, her maid (Diane Fischer) hilarious English lesson.

And all through it, flashes of the incidents, like a countdown to disaster or the collapse of a chaotic system, all those series of events, some great, some small that leads a nation to war.

My favourite character was Captain Fluellen, played by the redoubtable and well cast Michael Lamont.  He could have just been the token comic Welshman, but no, he's a deadly guy, dead serious when he's working. Watch him during the exposure of the conspirators to the Southampton Plot...there's a guardsman!

Also he does not like a joke at his beliefs expense carried too far, and repays an insult well. A mixture of good humour and deadly serious, he's a great character and played really well. He got some great lines too, delivered beatifully, amazing how he could, they're not easy lines to say!

The beautiful costumes deserve a mention - the French King's robe is to die for, and King Henry certainly looks super too in his court robes and Princess Katherine's charms are not let down by her beatiful costume too.

We're left to make up our own minds about the justness of the cause...and that's as it should be. It could have been a rolling energetic snowball culminating in the English "triumph" at Agincourt...but it's not. It's darkness, and uncertainty and the atrocity of war.

I found the most poingnant example of this, not in the pitiful body of the slain Boy (up to then a moving performance by Sarah Young, of someone coming to the realisation they're in the wrong place. After she's dead of course her performance is still moving, by not moving...), but more in the final appearance of the French Herald. The "here comes the herald of the french, my liege, his eyes are humbler than they used to be" was kind of redundant, because when the herald Montjoy played by Belinda Wong comes in, we are in no doubt that something has gone seriously pear shaped for the French - the whole Gallic arrogance she's sustained throughout the events has suffered a change, it's a very powerful moment.

It's directed by Grant Watson, it's on Wed 14th - Sat 17th and Wed 21 -Sat 24th March and it's well worth going to see at the New Fortune.

In the Real World (tm) I draw pictures.

The review is ©Alicia Smith 2007 and may not be reproduced without permisssion.

The Graduate Dramatic Society of UWA and the participants of the production have permission to reproduce this review as long as the copyright information remains intact.