I recently saw a production of Henry V which was produced so far downtown that when I left the theater with my friend, I couldn't help but make the "Law and Order" chung chung! sound when I saw the empty streets before us and expected to, if not be tomorrow's headline, at least stumble upon it.

This production of Henry V had another title, to make it ... hipper? More relevant? There was a large video component, which served some scenes (Princess Katherine's "da hand, des fingres") and some speeches and was meant to comment on our contemporary society because it looked like Fox News/Reality TV/CNN/a Ken Burns documentary ... and that might have worked for me as a production of Henry V. As an isn't-it-ironic-how-little-we-have-changed device, for me, it did not work. Nor as a what-the-media-tells-us-is-not-what-really-happens device, either.

But I admire the effort. I do. All six of the actors were terribly hard-working and the Henry (who also played the Dauphin) had a wonderful voice and presence.

My friend C. complained that Henry did not present sufficient emotion, but I do think that is hard to do when you are staging an entire war on a stage half the size of my living room with a cast of six. My test of a MacBeth is the "all my pretty chickens in one fell swoop?" scene and my test of a Henry V is when they read off the English dead and the Duke of York is at the top of the list. If the audience does not know that the Duke of York is Henry's younger brother -- if they have seen no interaction between them -- then Henry's reaction (or lack thereof) to this news means nothing. If we do not see Henry's personal sacrifice, then all his bluster before has been only bluster, and all his subsequent clumsy diplomacy merely blather.

I thought I had achieved the record earlier when I saw MacBeth with a cast of six. One of the Weird Sisters was a plastic doll, manipulated by her wicked sibling in a different voice. Burnam Wood came to Dunsinane via cell phone.

But then last weekend I saw the Battle of Agincourt staged with only three people.

We happy few who still care about Shakespeare being produced robustly, vigorously, on all budgets, applaud the thought; and effort; we many few who understand about budgets and space constraints are sorry to say this, but on the whole this production was just too ... little.

Labels: Shakespeare

posted by Elizabeth at 9:04 PM