Staging a production of Henry V

If I were to stage a production of the Shakespeare play Henry V I would modernise it and aim it at young teenagers. My aim would be to try and get the younger teens interested in Shakespeare so they would find there studies in later years not only a lot easier but also a lot more fun. I think that to get younger teens interested I would have to modernise it as they would not have much knowledge of Shakespeare plays.

To modernise the play I would modernise all the costumes and quite obviously the battle scenes. I would try to get actors that teenagers can relate to, people they have seen on television or movies. I would also modernise the script and make it more understandable to a younger audience. I don’t mean that I would change it to slang but I would use Modern English and also summarise what is being said in the chorus so it is easier for a younger audience to digest. I would mainly focus on the language that would be used as I feel that this is more important than what costumes are being used as the children will be paying more attention on what is being said than what the performers are wearing.

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To make the audience more interested I fell that I would have to set the play in an environment that they could relate so I would maybe set it an urban lifestyle and instead of a king henry maybe a president henry. I would do this, as teenagers do not have much understanding of a monarch in charge of the country. Due to most things on television being American they are used to hearing about the president, also Britain is run buy a government so younger teenagers will not have much knowledge of a king or even a queen in charge. They would also be used to a high rank in the army leading the battle not a king with no obvious training in the combat area. I would also use more modern weapons for the fighting. Guns instead of knifes for example. I would use guns instead of knifes because as they are more modern young teenagers will have more understanding of this kind of warfare than they will of sword play and horses.

To help the audience understand what is being said I would summarise and modernise every thing that is said. I would do this as young teens would probably find it hard to take in the whole of the play at one time so that would be why I would summarise. I would modernise because younger people might find it hard to understand the language that Shakespeare writes in.

I think for the character of henry I would have some one like Ewen Mcgregor as he is in many films that are aimed at young teens and also I feel that he would be good for the part. For the parts of Pistol, Bardolph and Nym I would probably choose Sean William Scott, tom green and also Johnny Knoxville as these are all people that teenagers like a lot. Sean William Scott, for his roles in many teen movies. And Johnny Knoxville and Tom Green for their parts on their television shows. I think these three men would be perfect for the parts as they are all funny and teens relate with them.

After seeing a few different versions of the play I feel that I know what is needed to make it good. In the Kenneth Brannah version I saw, I remember the all-important soliloquy very well, as it was in my view very poor. The speech was very monotone and there were no special effects that were noticeable apart from one which was the camera moving to above the speaker. I think this was a good effect as it made it look like he was talking to the heavens. I feel that the actor spoke the speech very poorly and considering this is as I think the most important part of the whole play it was ruined buy the complete lack of enthusiasm and also poor effects. I feel that when I do this soliloquy that a big deal will be made of it. I will have lighting effects and I will also use the camera trick that they did use in the Kenneth Brannah version of the soliloquy.

If I were to re do the play to relate to a teen audience I would modernise the speech and also the costumes and props also the settings, to relate to the young teen audience.