Henry V ReviewOn the 25th November 2009 our drama group saw the play Henry V, in the North Wall professional theatre in Summertown, Oxford. The play was directed by Lucy Maycock. It was a whole school production (but incidently did not contain any members of the shell year). The genre of the piece was Contemporary Shakespeare which was (it was (set) in Afghanistan).The set was very intricate and contained many hidden meanings, on the floor of the stage the was a H, this could of signified helipad (modern), it also could of signified Henry, or most likely home, because France was rightfully his and so it was his home. There was also a sloping wall, this was the main thing on the stage, it had bullet holes in its textured outside these are both modern, as the textured cover made for the look of a Taliban looking fortress, there were turrets on the top which brought made the wall look old. The wall was often the main obstacle in fighting scenes, it was a barrier between armies, the no man’s land, and sometimes seemed as if it was what the armies where fighting not each other but the wall, sometimes soldiers screamed and kicked at the wall, it becomes a wall of death and some of the soldiers for this reason seemed scared of it at times. At other times, the wall is positive, for the maidens of Harfleurs it is their escape with their sheets tied together. The wall is also used in a positive way when deciding the fate of Harfleur, the mayor of Harfleur and Harry discuss the terms on how the siege would be carried out, until the mayor surrenders. The Lights were very cleverly used in the play, one of the most effective methods in which they
used the lights was where they used red, they often would use red to signify danger of death/blood spilling. The way the lights were positioned made the wall look red in scenes of war, the doorways in the wall glowed more red than the wall itself, and to me looked like doorways to hell, because the battle was sometimes behind the wall and when they went through the doorways it was as if they were going into hell. In one scene there was a gas attack, in the scene a green light covered the stage, smoke was also projected onto ...
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used the lights was where they used red, they often would use red to signify danger of death/blood spilling. The way the lights were positioned made the wall look red in scenes of war, the doorways in the wall glowed more red than the wall itself, and to me looked like doorways to hell, because the battle was sometimes behind the wall and when they went through the doorways it was as if they were going into hell. In one scene there was a gas attack, in the scene a green light covered the stage, smoke was also projected onto the stage so the light picked up the smoke, on the stalls near the front you could taste and smell the smoke, the ‘gas’ effected the audience as well, the green light signified gas but also nature and tranquility because the gas attack was located in a jungle. Strobe lighting was used very effectively the main scene with strobe lighting was a field of gun battle, the strobe lighting signified machine guns and bombs in the night, the scene was in slow motion and was accompanied by a cello piece (often associated with death or sad moments), the strobes highlighted the different reactions of the actors, in the night. During the play Harry was constantly spotlighted more than other actors, even when other lights shone bright, or when he was undercover, this showed his importance in play, in his St. Crispin day speech when praying to god he looked up to the spotlight, this showed the heavens opening and him speaking directly to god. In moments of anger the lights were dimmed and the lower lights used this cast shadows.The costumes of each side were very different from each other; the English wore modern military uniform with stab vests and helmets included, whereas the French wore old cavalry uniform in some scenes, whereas in other scenes they wear turbans along with their cavalry uniform, and wield the ‘trademark’ rocket propelled grenade(rpg) Mistress Quickly wore a corset and neon-goth miniskirt, this showed that she was outgoing, sexy, lively and somewhat of a rebel. Harry red tracksuits at the beginning of the play showing he is young and laidback, then as the play matures, he and his dress sends does too, he then wears, basic military uniform, without his hat (showing his high status), then he wears full military with vest and after that he wears his white jacket which is too large for him, this lets us know that he is somewhat of an amateur lover and doesn’t know what to do, because is he military born and has spent his life based around military practice, even when trying to woo Katherine he kicks the wall to show his frustration, just as he did earlier on in the play when showing his frustration to his men.The music in the play was the part I admired most, mainly because it was made and compiled by students in the play, percussion was a large part of the sounds used in almost all scenarios, it was loud and often quick, which signified military and also pace in the scene, and danger. The Dauphin’s music was played whenever a scene revolving around him opened, his music was in the E minor pitch so descending and threatening, it was also very distinct, it had a noble background of percussion and trumpets but over the top had a gangster mix, this could signify his noble background and also the cover he tries to put on as a gangster. The music composed for the scenes awaiting the battle on the French side was an eastern sounding music so it symbolizes Taliban. In a scene in a cheap bar that Harry’s old friends are in the music is ironically an upbeat club genre, the mood of the bar is one of an empty afternoon where there is no business or chatter, just one sad moment when boy jumps onto the scene revealing Falstaff’s death. The night before the battle, the English talk of ghosts and at that moment music starts playing, the music is a ringtone consisting of illegible talking it is monotonous and inhuman; this represents the ghosts around the soldiers. Harry, played by Seb de Souza, was obviously the main character of the play and so I concentrated on him a lot, he is a great actor and unlike some of the other characters he speaks with determination and confidence, he always looks into the distance rather than at the audience, which I thought in this play was a good decision because the play was set in the past, and so because he didn’t interact or make eye contact with the audience it gave us the feeling as if were in the past unnoticed by the other people of the time. Another great thing he did was use is incredible facial expressions, whether it be half hidden frustration when trying to woo Katherine or using his eyebrows showing his desperation when speaking to god in his St. Crispin day speech. He uses his facial expression in every almost every sentence along with body language and movement around the stage. His emotions come and go very fast and because they are so strong they are sometimes rushed upon us, this makes us feel how he feels. In the play he speaks with statements to convince his men rather than talk to them, by doing this he states his authority. While watching the play I felt that most of the characters spoke very fast and as a result sometimes stalling or getting words wrong, whereas Seb spoke with time, this made his lines seem more realistic and as if he was making them up as he said them. Although he spoke with confidence it was not with arrogance for as he spoke to the king of France he spoke with respect and admiration, another example of this is when he spoke to the princess of France, he spoke with care and love like a gentleman.One of the key moments I thought was when Harry passed the death warrant to Grey, when both Harry’s and Grey’s hands were on the warrant he paused momentarily, I thought this was a fantastic way of marking the moment.The chorus were one of the main parts of the play, the said at the beginning of the play that it was their play, and I though they pointed out all main stages of the plot and would have made it easier to understand if we had not studied it before watching it, they were dressed all in black, which could have signified their invisibility to the actors, it also made them all look the same (and the way they spoke overlapping each other’s sentences made them seems one person), they also looked like shadows but also stood out. They were unnoticed by the actors which could signify that they were ghosts (some of them starred in the play and so they could be ghosts of the dead that died in the war), they could have signified death, because in the minefield scene, whoever they touched was killed. They were the only characters to notice the audience. My overall impression of the play was that it was very well contemporized and that the actors were very skilled because I thought the play must have been very hard to prepare for/act in, if I could have I would have gone again, and I thought that the directing was very good, I got a very positive impression of the play. Ruairi O’Hara
