The Theatre Times: Nearly a century ago, Winnie-The-Pooh creator A.A. Milne wrote a now-forgotten one-act play called The Man In The Bowler Hat. It dealt with the disruption of a conventional middle-class household by a sequence of melodramatic events that in performance could be done for real or, more commonly, take on the texture of a Monty Python spoof.
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Having been an English student long enough, there is not a class where you don't have to make connections between Shakespeare and real-world events. His commentary and opinion on politics and classes can be traced to other events, in order to put them into a more modern context. However, sometimes we try so hard to make a connection between two distinct things, and when we try to force some sort of shared meaning we lose the stories they are trying to tell. I am not saying that this was a bad idea, the writer even included at the end evidence of a similar show working, however this particular revival failed. Because this particular festival is around the anniversary of World War One it would make sense to find a narrative which could examine the war itself, but Henry V just seems like difficult material to pull apart and change in order to fit this setting. Shakespeare is already hard enough for the modern audiences to interpret, but when the storyline is changed considerably to be forced into a specific era, where it seems like thought really hasn't been put into the connection there, it will be very difficult to be successful. It's disappointing that audiences were not fond of the show, but the company, can no doubt, use this as a learning experience.
This is one of my favorite Shakespeare shows so I am sad that it was not done well. I saw the Oregon Shakespeare festival version of this show and it was amazing and I would definitely see it again. I think that the way this version was done was just not a good idea. I've seen most of the Henry shows at OSF, and although each one is kind of a new concept, they do connect in a way. They are all theater in a round and have this weird kind of modern concept where there really isn't a defined period other than sometime modern. I really enjoyed the way they were done because the feelings are still relevant to our time, and so is the notions of war and peace. My favorite scene from the Henry V that I saw was when they hang someone. It was beautifully done, if a little sad and creepy, but it was super cool. They had him take off this harness thing and then just hung it up on a hook as the actor walked out mournfully looking back. I think this play can be done super well, this version was just not.
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