I read somewhere once that someone once said that Henry V was the most difficult role in Shakespeare’s canon. They said that this was because it’s so hard to get a grip on Henry's character arc. That he can be played completely differently in each scene, to wit: political naïf, Machiavellian strategist, frenzied rouser, fascist thug, Gotterdammerung-seeking legacy-pervert, ruthless and cold ex-comrade, philosopher-king, heroic-against-all-the-odds-victory-winning Brother-in-Arms, callow, non-subtle, thrice-denied, somewhat-pathetic-and-possibly-sleazy-but-somehow-successful-wooer-of-fair-maidens. It’s all there, all at once. And this summer it’s all been, thankfully, Jake Fryer-Hornsby’s problem. Which, as you will see, he has solved. Brilliantly, for my money.

 

My problems were (1) whether staging Henry V as a rugby tour – an idea I’ve been musing about since at least 2001 – was possible, and (2) how a small team can differentiate many, many roles so our audiences can get some sort of a handle on who is speaking, where and why. Those problems have both been solved by Sophia Carlton and our fabulous cast who jumped on board my vision, backed it in 110%, and have made this production sing by taking it far out beyond my, in hindsight, straightened imaginings.

 

For the record, the answer to (1) is yes – with a cast as wonderful as this, absolutely anything’s possible, especially when Shakespeare mentions “sports” a couple of times in the text and uses disparaging tennis balls as key plot device. The answer to (2) is, well, as a matter of fact, staging Henry V as a rugby tour improves its accessibility. That's because we've put the cast in rugby shirts with identifying numbers and their character’s name on the back so everyone can follow who they are, where they're from and why they are saying whatever they are!

 

Our long-term fans would have clocked that Henry V is the first history LAKESPEARE has played outdoors, and the first non-comedy. It is, of course, still free! It's a famous text, and rightly so, because it explores, to greater and lesser degrees, themes of leadership, war, patriotism, compromise, and friendship in language that often soars. 

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Our goal was to tell a face-paced story and edits were inevitable. You will follow and enjoy this 115 minute version. We had to be brutal, though. Loved by many, the 'leek scene' was the hardest to leave out. Unfortunately, it just did not add enough to the main story. For those unfamiliar with Henry V, we have provided a scene-by-scene breakdown.

 

One of the main challenges of staging the play within a sports framework is to adapt the language and the action to suit the context. We have kept most of Shakespeare's original text, while setting Henry V within the world of modern international sport – which so often serves as a cipher for great power competition, or even conflict – gives us room to make Shakespeare’s plot more relatable, as well as to bring out the humour, drama, and emotion of the play. Rugby is a game that requires courage, strategy, humor, teamwork, fouls, brutality, nuance and passion to win, just like the arguably needless battle into which Henry V leads his struggling army. The stakes are high, the odds are long, the outcome is uncertain, the glory lasts forever. It's a challenge for everyone to think about the implications of war and sport in today's world. How do we define victory and honour? How do we cope with loss and injury? How do we relate to our opponents and allies? What is our legacy worth? How far will we go? What and who will we risk to #beremembered?

 

 

That’s your problem.

 

 Game on!

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TW Gibbings