We’ve completed table work for Henry V, which means the cast has also completed table work for an entire tetralogy! During this phase of rehearsal, the cast examines each line in the script with a focus toward scansion (tracking Shakespeare’s use of meter and rhetoric) and paraphrase (where the actors substitute each word or line in their own style to help clarify meaning). As dramaturg Emily MacLeod mentioned in a previous blog, these exercises allow for a personal kind of translation that becomes specific for each actor.
Henry V is one of the more frequently performed of Shakespeare’s history plays and many of us have probably heard pieces from its famous speeches even if we’ve never seen a production. At its surface, the play traces the story of a young King of England who goes to war with France in order to assert his family’s claim to the French crown. Beneath that broad stroke, however, Shakespeare’s play asks questions about violence, identity, entitlement, duty, and responsibility. The project ensemble’s week-long deep dive into the text prompted many conversations about the language and lens of the forthcoming Brave Spirits Theatre production. Here are a few themes that cropped up most frequently:
The cast’s brainstorm on the themes and atmospheres of ‘Henry V’
SHAKESPEAREAN NATIONALISM
It’s easy to get caught up in the powerful imagery and eloquence of famous passages like “O for a muse of fire …” or “Once more unto the breach …” and the Saint Crispin’s Day address. The Chorus figure weaves a tale of imagination and heroism for us while Henry’s commanding orations pull us into the excitement and camaraderie of his army. But Shakespeare carefully designed his characters’ language to evoke those feelings – to inspire a sense of unity and encourage us to imagine ourselves on Henry’s winning side or as witnesses to famous battles. During table work, the cast was able to pay special attention not only to these powerful expositions and rallying cries, but also to places where the production might question Henry’s dogged onslaught.
Since Shakespeare’s play has immortalized Henry’s conquest as part of England’s national identity, various productions over the years have used the story as an instrument of propaganda or critique. Much of its source material came from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which paints a flattering picture of the English king as a noble and pious ruler. Working closely with the script’s meter and rhetoric, however, gave the Brave Spirits Theatre ensemble an opportunity to examine moments where Shakespeare borrowed or combined or altered elements from Holinshed, intensified challenges and French cowardice to heighten Henry’s heroism, and minimized the pain of subjugation.
SHAKESPEAREAN ACCENTS
Shakespeare’s play also wrestles with the “otherness” of Gallic and Celtic cultures by including French, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish voices. For the fractured alliances within Henry’s army, paraphrasing the Scottish Captain Jamy (Jacqueline Chenault) and the Irish Captain MacMorris (Anderson Wells) helped to reveal how much the humor in their dialogue relies on dialects and early modern representations. Conversely, Shakespeare’s constructed cadence and quirks of speech for the Welsh Captain Fluellen seemed to come through even when rephrased by actor Ian Blackwell Rogers. Another tricky textual concern was the script’s handling of the French court and the various ways Brave Spirits’s production could treat those accents. On the one hand, Shakespeare wrote with little regard for realism or accurate pronunciation, but on the other, he included an entire scene spoken in French and two others with French characters communicating through translators. This strange disparity means that any stage world for Henry V must find a way to balance French dialogue with the wordplay that Shakespeare crafted around Anglified pronunciations. Should the actors who play French characters use English or French dialects? Should they use French dialects throughout the play even when they’re not speaking French? Are there differences in the ways individual English characters treat the French language? How should the production portray all of these clashing cultures while recognizing the work that the text is doing?
SHAKESPEAREAN (HISTORY) GHOSTS
Shakespeare’s history plays are full of characters who are haunted by the past and Henry V is no exception. Actor Anderson Wells noticed that the French King Charles VI fixates on the previous invasion of Henry V’s great-grandfather, Edward III, from seventy years before. The rhythms and metaphors in Charles’s dialogue show how much he fears that Henry’s new march across France will resume the brutality of his ancestors. Actor Brendan Kennedy considered how Henry’s experiences in battle (such as Shrewsbury) and his complicated relationship with his late father (Henry IV) from the previous two plays may influence his desire to achieve the French crown and inform his perspective on warfare. And further shadows of the past appear as we discover Falstaff mortally heartbroken in Eastcheap, watch key players from Henry’s reckless youth follow him across the English Channel to war, and hear the king continue to atone for his father’s overthrow of Richard II. Throughout the story – from Richard II to Henry V – choices and transgressions of the past menace these monarchs’ heavy crowns.
– Claire Kimball, Production Dramaturg
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