Last Updated on January 23, 2025
War by candlelight
The Globe’s winter season has opened with an intense Henry V for our times, in the intimate setting of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Starring Oliver Johnstone as Henry and directed by Holly Race Roughan, this co-production with Headlong gives us a psychological study of a king who is more neurotic than heroic. Old ideas of Shakespeare’s play as a vessel for the glorification of England’s military might and of Henry V as a strong leader of men are largely forgotten by the end of a tense two and half hours.
The action opens not with the usual opening chorus to set the scene but goes back one history play to the death scene from Henry IV, Part 2. Out of the darkness comes the sound of Henry IV (an excellent Helena Lymbery) struggling for breath in his death throes. The transfer of the crown makes a highly effective opening to this Henry V. It also highlights that age-old motivation for going to war, spoken by the dying king to a son who will inherit an England in a state of unrest: “to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels”. The stage is thereby set for war with the French.
The father dead, a new play begins. The candelabras descend over the stage casting their atmospheric, timeless glow over the proceedings. The ensemble cast stands and sings God Save the King – anachronistically, of course, as it dates forward to the reign of George II, over 300 years after Agincourt. Still, it works too as a strange nod to the events of 2022.
Soon Henry has two more reasons to invade France, the assurance that he has a legal right to claim the French crown and the receipt of an insulting gift from the French Dauphin. Johnstone’s Henry does not react with dignified disdain but is swift to rage. It looks like the new king might be in need of an anger management course. It isn’t long before that anger turns to violence. Once Scroop’s treachery is revealed rather than being taken off to be executed off stage, it is Henry himself who dispatches him, throttling him very convincingly in a long and painfully drawn-out scene.
This is a pared-down, highly edited version of the original play – the chorus is largely left on the cutting room floor, there is no sign of the bishops, Scroop is the only one of the three traitors to make it onto the stage. Scenes shift, words are put into different mouths generally to good effect – Katherine’s English lesson with her maid in Act III, for example, turns up at the end of the play, with her mother taking the role of language teacher. Speeches are often interrupted, words cut short, giving the play pace and drive.
Strikingly, Henry delivers his “Once more unto the breach” speech curled up and alone, his back to the mirrored wall. It is as though he needs all his strength to galvanise himself. Later, others may be on stage during his St Crispian’s Day speech but no one seems interested. The great orator, the great motivator and leader of troops is not present here. This absence makes it hard to make sense of the impossible victory at Agincourt.
The play normally ends with the betrothal of Henry and Katherine. However, the prism through which this scene is viewed has changed from a medieval one (via the Elizabethan age) to a very contemporary one. Instead of a gently romantic scene cementing a political marriage, we are presented with Henry as sex pest forcing himself on a childlike princess (played beautifully by Joséphine Callies). Katherine’s experience is then further interrogated in a newly added scene set in the modern day. She’s taking the Life in the UK test and the first question is about the Forced Marriage Act of 2007. I do hope that there are no students who can’t be bothered to read the play and rely on this version of Henry V for their English Lit GCSE…
Moi Tran’s simple but glowering tarnished mirrored set and the tense-making, low-humming music under the direction of Lois Au both contribute to the sense of menace and anguish. Despite the small stage, this still feels like a big play. The talented ensemble cast cover many roles and give good support to Oliver Johnstone’s fascinating take on a flawed and troubled Henry.
Henry V is running at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse until 4 February 2023
Shakespeare’s Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London SE1 9DT
Looking for something different? We also recommend Arms and the Man, currently showing at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
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