Henry V

The British Shakespeare company Propeller is made up of highly gifted, proficient, long-term professionals, each with a history of successes in the arts theatrical on stage, screen and radio. All of them are men.

In the company’s vision statement, we find that Propeller “seeks to find a more engaging way of expressing Shakespeare and to more completely explore the relationship between text and performance. Mixing a rigorous approach to the text with a modern physical aesthetic … (Propeller has) been influenced by mask work, animation and classic and modern film and music from all ages.”

Propeller’s Perth Festival season amply demonstrates that these ambitions are fulfilled fourfold.

Henry V opens with a detachment of soldiers in modern fatigues stacking 17th century-style wooden chests and singing a marching song, ‘Brown Eyes’. This gives way to the prologue, which, instead of being proclaimed by the Chorus (normally a solo actor) is spoken singly or in couplets by individual soldiers. This segues into a sung chorus with accordion accompaniment of a French-flavoured popular song from the 1950s, through which we learn of the Dauphin’s diplomatic envoy and his mission in London.

Only then do we switch to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely as they decide, for entirely self-interested reasons, to support King Henry in his bid for the French throne, and the play proper gets underway. We already know that this is definitely not a traditional production, and already we are fully engaged in the story.

The famous tennis-ball scene shows us a proudly confident but very personable King Henry, played by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart. Young Hal Five was the pin-up boy of his day, and in his regimental dress uniform, he reminds us of our own new pin-up boy, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Apart from a speech mannerism that gives almost all his utterances an upward inflection (is he trying to sound Welsh, I wonder) I love Bruce-Lockhart’s Henry almost as much as I do that of Kenneth Branagh. The latter is heavy on emotion, the former on pragmatism. Two very different approaches, each equally valid.

The visitor that brought the unwelcome gift, Mountjoy, the French Ambassador, was convincingly played by Nicholas Asbury. His later appearances in Acts II and III gradually revealed a man who is losing confidence in his cause: a broken man and perhaps a sick one. It came as a great surprise, then, when director Edward Hall came out early in the second half to explain that Asbury was, in fact, ill, and unable to continue; his place to be taken by Finn Hanlon. Fortunately the part allows the actor to carry a sheaf of papers and Hanlon was able to use these as cheat sheets. He might not have known the lines, but his characterisation, although low-key, was steady, still another signpost to the sheer professionalism of this troupe.

The action rolls on, and we meet our comic relief team – Nym (Finn Hanlon), Bardolph (Gary Shelford) and Pistol (Vince Leigh), who has just wed Mistress Quickly, the only camped-up character, played in panto-dame manner by Tony Bell. The tragi-comic Boy makes his first appearance, and we see the troops leaving in high spirits for Harfleur. The siege and its aftermath, the campfire scenes of the evening before Agincourt and the battle itself are all interspersed with songs, sung in styles appropriate to their periods, which ranged from Medieval to World War I. The music highlighted not only the action and the ambience, but the versatility of the actors. Their voices blended as well as any Gregorian choir or Barbershop quartet you’re likely to hear.

The ever-popular scene in which the French Princess Katherine starts to learn English was charmingly preceded by a mute, interpolated one in which Katherine (Karl Davies) sits at her dressing table, whiting up for the part, assisted by her attendant Alice (a moustached Chris Myles in military garb – with a skirt!). Davies’ whitened skin and the dresses worn by the female characters were the only concessions to feminine accoutrements. A Katherine with a number-two haircut takes a bit of getting used to, but Davies played her sympathetically and more than credibly. I quickly forgot the haircut.

Is there a fashion for presenting Shakespeare amid metal scaffolding? The Bell Shakespeare company used it in its latest Julius Caesar, and here it was again, providing vantage points for kings in battle and people with trash cans full of tennis balls. Michael Pavelka is to be congratulated on the design, in which a myriad of disparate elements were happily combined. Ben Ormerod’s moody lighting was also a highly appropriate addition.

All in all, this season is a memorable one, and I hope Edward Hall will continue to bring Propeller to visit these shores and show us new ways of presenting the old truths so skilfully penned by our beloved playwright for all periods, William Shakespeare.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Propeller, in association with The Touring Partnership presents
Henry V
Director: Edward Hall
Design: Michael Pavelka
Lighting: Ben Ormerod
Sound: David Gregory
Stage Manager: Laura Routledge
Cast includes: Ben Allen, Nicholas Asbury, Tony Bell, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Gunnar Cauthery, Karl Davies, Richard Dempsey, John Dougall, Robert Hands, Finn Hanlon, Vince Leigh, Chris Myles, Gary Shelford, Dominic Thorburn

His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth
17 January–25 February 2012
Info: www.perthfestival.com.au