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Henry V by William Shakespeare Further production details: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Director Nicholas Hytner Designer Tim Hatley Lighting Designer Mark Henderson Music Simon Webb Music Consultant Martin Russel Sound Designer Paul Groothuis NT Education National Theatre South Bank London SE1 9PX T 020 7452 3388 F 020 7452 3380 E education@ nationaltheatre.org.uk Workpack written by Peter Reynolds Editor Dinah Wood Design Alexis Bailey Patrick Eley Contents The play, Act by Act 2 Teaching the play 13 Workpack Education Henry V
Transcript
Page 1: Workpack - National Theatrelater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt The play Adrian Lester photo Ivan Kyncl. national theatre education workpack 5 (Act 4 scene i), he reflects

Henry Vby William Shakespeare

Further production details:www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

DirectorNicholas Hytner

DesignerTim Hatley

Lighting DesignerMark Henderson

MusicSimon Webb

Music ConsultantMartin Russel

Sound DesignerPaul Groothuis

NT Education National TheatreSouth Bank London SE1 9PX

T 020 7452 3388F 020 7452 3380E education@

nationaltheatre.org.uk

Workpack written by Peter Reynolds

Editor Dinah Wood

Design Alexis BaileyPatrick Eley

Contents

The play, Act by Act 2

Teaching the play 13

WorkpackEducation

Henry V

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national theatre education workpack 2

Henry V background packA scene-by-scene account of NicholasHytner’s production of Henry V at the NationalTheatre, May – August 2003, includingreferences to concept, realisation andproduction values, as well as exercises forexploring key elements of the play in theclassroom.

“Work, work your thoughts…” (Chorus, Act 3)

Nicholas Hytner’s production of Henry V at theNational began with the Chorus, PennyDownie, a slight figure, picked out by a follow-spot and dressed in a dark calf-length skirt,red shoes and blood red cardigan, walkingdown the “vasty fields” of the matt-blackOlivier stage towards the audience. Shecarried several books, and, pausing briefly, satdown at one of the dozen or so chairsarranged round a very long oval table andbegan leafing through one of the volumes onher lap. Suddenly, looking up with an air ofdissatisfaction, she snapped the book shut,apparently having failed to find what she was

looking for, and spoke the famous openinglines of the play, “Oh for a muse of fire…”

What was she looking for? What were thebooks? Perhaps they were histories ofmedieval England, where, despite herresearch, she failed to find her legendary King,and perhaps, she, suspects, she will fail to findhim on the Olivier stage over the coming threehours. And so, uniquely in Shakespeare, thefirst words of the play are an apology to theaudience, asking them to suspend theirdisbelief and enter into a pact in which theymust agree to use their imaginations to makeup for the deficiencies of the stage and actors.“Think, when we talk of horses, that you seethem…” Of course, Henry V isn’t about horsesor even battles (Shakespeare didn’t attempt toshow them), it’s about something far morecomplex and interesting. If the Chorus islooking for Henry, who or what is the Henry theaudience expects to find? Most of us trailmemories of past productions of the play, likeKenneth Branagh’s 1989 film, or the film madeby the National’s first director, Laurence Olivier,on the eve of the Normandy landings in 1944.Both contain vivid portraits of the King asnational hero, overcoming apparentlyinsurmountable odds to reach both a militaryand personal triumph. But was this the Kingcreated by Shakespeare? Partially perhaps,but both Branagh and Olivier contributed tothe mythologizing of Henry by cutting cut keyparts of the text.

Nicholas Hytner’s production opened on 13May 2003 in the immediate aftermath of thewar with Iraq. How would the play work now?Would the legendary war-time rhetoric ofHenry seem quite so stirring to an audienceover familiar with pontificating retired generals,and tired of accounts of “collateral damage”and the squalid realities of fighting brought totheir living rooms nightly on ‘live’ television?Would they see in this production a pro- oranti-war play? Would they discover a stirringportrait of heroic individuals undergoing thegreatest test of their lives and emergingstronger and wiser as a result, or might theyinstead find a play that undermines the

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

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legendary leadership qualities of one of thegreat characters of English history?

The actors, “ciphers to this great account”,began their exploration of these and otherquestions not with an action scene but with acomplicated wordy political episode involvingthe clergy, the young king, and a lot of spin-doctors.

The Cabinet Room (Act 1 scenes i and ii)The location is the cabinet room at 10Downing Street; the time, the present. Entertwo senior clerics, the Archbishop ofCanterbury and the Bishop of Ely. Canterburyhas a thick dossier of evidence to supportHenry’s claim to the throne of France, whichhe distributes around the table to members ofthe gradually assembling cabinet. It is alengthy document of the kind familiar to thosewho have had to make (or listen to)presentations of complex arguments andincludes a coloured foldout map of France.The Church, we learn, is prepared to financiallyback a war with France and to provide

theological justification from the Book ofNumbers. As the King enters in readiness toreceive the French ambassador, he listens withincreasing impatience, to the detailed (and formany of the ‘cabinet’, impossible to follow)case regarding the interpretation of the Saliclaw. The familiar tactic of the Archbishop is touse information-overload in the hope that hisaudience will grow tired of the detail andaccept his guidance. All Henry really wants toknow is the answer to the question: “May Iwith right and conscience make this claim?”The Church of England tells him that he can,and that he should.

“Henry is going to have his war,” said Hytner,in the early days of rehearsals. “He’s in thesecond year of his reign and looking forsomething to mark his arrival in power.” Itseems that the war could be justified – it willhelp to avoid civil war between the Scots andthe English. The older members of Henry’scabinet, like his uncle, the Duke of Exeter,want something bold from this young andinexperienced king. Considerable pressure isplaced on him to “unwind [his] bloody flag”,but what tips him from diplomacy to war isn’tjust the Archbishop’s argument; it’s also thepersonal insult of his young French rival, KingCharles’ son, the Dauphin, who sends hisembarrassed ambassador with a gift of tennisballs, a reference to Henry’s wayward youth.This childish insult provokes a hot-headedresponse from the king, suggesting similaritiesbetween the two young men:

And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his

Hath turned his balls to gun–stones, and his soul

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance

That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows

Shall this mock mock out of their dear husbands;

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down

And some are yet ungotten and unborn

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.

King Henry bursts into the controlledatsmosphere of a cabinet meeting withlanguage that is almost visceral, crude,belonging to the chaos of the battle-field ratherthan the civilised choreography of diplomacy. It

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

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is a shocking early demonstration of Henry’sability to use words as powerful weapons.

The Pub (Act 2 scene i)“Now all the youth of England are on fire,/Andsilken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.” says theChorus, as the lights go up on a very differentscene. The “base, common and popular”, hasreplaced the privileged elite and warmongers.Hytner set the scene in a pub where Nym sitsalone, casually dressed in jeans and trainers,staring morosely into his glass of beer. Heflicks a television remote, rapidly changingchannels between Henry making a broadcastto the nation, snooker, the Archbishop ofCanterbury justifying the invasion and football.Bardolph enters wearing an England footballshirt. His first words touch on anotherunresolved quarrel: “What, are Ensign Pistoland you friends yet?” In this scene, adeliberate parallel and mirror to the one justwitnessed in the cabinet office, simmeringviolence is ever-present. It is only the bruteforce of Bardolph, not his attempteddiplomacy, that stops Nym and Pistol fromcutting one another’s throats. They are “onfire”, but not because of anything the King ofEngland may have said! Their concern is withpersonal rather than global politics.

The Embarkation (Act 2 Scene ii)“…and the scene/Is now transported, gentles,to Southampton.” At the start of this scene in

the National’s production, soldiers carry boxesof ammunition and supplies across the stage,whilst a small group of officers stand by a teaurn, observing. Several of the characters fromthe cabinet room scene are present, includingthe Earl of Exeter and the King. All are nowdressed in military uniform except the threetraitors, Scrope, Cambridge, and Grey. Theyhave come to ask the King for theircommissions, and pay sycophantic homage toHenry, who already knows of their treachery.Nick Hytner staged the revelation of theircrimes in such a way as to emphasise itsinherent theatricality. The King asks, “Whowere of late entrusted with commissions?” towhich the traitors all respond in the affirmative.Henry gives each of them a piece of papersaying as he does so:

Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;

There yours, Lord Scrope of Masham; and, sir knight,

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours.

The three men fold the papers as if to placethem in their briefcases to read later, littlesuspecting that what is actually written is theirdeath warrants. There is a pause; Henry andthe English officers watch before Henrycommands: “Read them [slight pause] andknow I know thy worthiness”. As he then turnsto his uncle Exeter, the traitors read thedocuments and, as they do so, the realisationthat they are caught out gradually spreadsover their faces. Grey attempts to make anescape, but is immediately arrested togetherwith the other two, and made to lie face downwith hands behind his back; one soldier cuffshim whilst another stands behind, rifle at theready. This ‘business’ of the briefcases, thepause before “read them” and the attempt torun away were all added by the director aspart of his staging, thereby increasing thescene’s theatrical impact. Betrayal bysupposed friends, especially by Lord Scrope,is a reminder of Henry’s ultimate isolation.Scrope’s behaviour, the former friend who“dids’t bear the key to all my counsels,/Thatknew’st the very bottom of my soul” is perhapsone of the things on Henry’s mind when, muchlater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

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(Act 4 scene i), he reflects on the loneliness ofoffice: “What infinite heart’s ease/Must Kingsneglect that private men enjoy.”

The Pub (Act 2 Scene iii)Having shown the betrayal of the King by aformer friend, the play returns to those oldfriends of Prince Hal: Pistol, Bardolph, Nymand the Boy. They too are preparing forFrance. Before they go, they watch a homevideo in which Hal (in dreadlocks) clownsbefore Falstaff and friends in a scene takenfrom Henry IV part 1. This reminds theaudience of the historic involvement of theyoung and inexperienced King with a group ofordinary citizens, including those friends nowpreparing to risk their lives on his behalf. Itshows them looking back on happier, pre-wartimes. What really matters to them is not thepolitics or legality of the coming war, but theloss of their old friend and protector, Sir JohnFalstaff. Mistress Quickly describes his death,and in a play in which the deaths of hundredsare reported, none is recounted moremovingly. This is as near as the play gets toshowing a family, complete with joys, tensionsand quarrels. Henry, when he was Prince Hal,was part of this family and what inescapablymattered to them all were the relationships andhistory they shared. As Pistol says just beforehe leaves for France, “oaths are straws”; whatcounts are the lives men actually lead, theirdeeds rather than their words.

The French Court (Act 2 scene iv)The King of France, the Dauphin, theConstable of France and other French nobleswatch a television broadcast of Henry’sspeech, recorded at Southampton:

Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliverOur puissance into the hand of God,Putting it straight in expedition.Cheerly to sea; The signs of war advance.No King of England, if not King of France!

The French King is obviously ill at ease, and sotoo are his Court, but the Dauphin is simplyangry. He wants an immediate confrontationwith his rival; the man whom he insists is a

“vain, giddy, shallow [and] humorous youth.”Shakespeare creates a contrasting picture oftwo young aristocrats. Henry who, followingthe death of his father, has had to grow upquickly, is compelled by circumstances toassume responsibility for the fate of his nation.He is the calmer of the two, more measured inhis speech and actions. The Dauphin in thisproduction is a playboy Prince, dressed inArmani, with heavy gold jewellery and darkglasses.

When the English ambassador enters (a roleundertaken by the Earl of Exeter), coffee isserved in delicate china cups. For a moment,conventional, social and diplomatic nicetiesobscure the real purpose of the mission andthe threat of force that lies behind it. FollowingExeter’s communication of Henry’s insults –“Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt”– the Dauphin throws off his jacket and makesas if to lunge at his adversary. He is restrainedby some of the less impetuous members of theFrench Court.

Harfleur (Act 3 scenes i–iii)The military campaign in France begins notwith victory, but with something that looks atfirst sight like defeat. Henry’s army has beendriven back from the walls of Harfleur; they areexhausted, wounded, frightened. When Henryasks them to risk their lives “Once more” theproduction considers their reactions, showingthe troops groaning audibly, trying to avoid eyecontact with their leader as he uses rhetoric tourge them to do what their bodies resist. Henryfinally manages to persuade most of them intoanother assault. Pistol, Nym, Bardolph and theBoy hang back; the heroic rhetoric counter-balanced by their very human concern for self-preservation above glory: “Would I were in analehouse in London! I would give all my famefor a pot of ale, and safety.” Only after theintervention of Llewellyn do they reluctantlyjoin the fight, with his gun pointing at theirbacks.

The war is not going well. Llewellyn re-enterswith Captains Gower, Macmorris, and Jamy;the Welsh, English, Irish and Scottish share the

The play

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stage, symbolically representing the unifiedkingdom of Britain, but what they say revealsmore schisms and flaws in the campaign.According to Macmorris, the mines, whichshould have been laid under the walls ofHarfleur, have been “ill done” and thecomrades, Llewellyn and Macmorris are atodds and almost come to blows. Only thenews that “the town sounds a parley”temporarily defuses the situation.

An English Lesson (Act 3 Scene iv)Henry’s speech to the besieged citizens of thetown is filmed by an embedded camera crewand, as part of his propaganda war, it isbroadcast in France. There, in their ornatepalace, flanked by vases of beautiful flowers, itis nervously watched by the PrincessKatherine and her companion, Alice.Katherine’s faltering attempts to learn someEnglish words is often performed, for examplein both the Olivier (1944) and Branagh (1989)films, to underscore the comic potential of thesituation. But comedy is here displaced by thethreat of tragedy – the women have just

watched Henry’s address, sub-titled in French.The menace of his words land like grenadesand shatter the superficial security of theirgilded cage, threatening mass destruction. ThePrincess hears the conqueror declaim:

If I begin the battery once again,

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur

Till in her ashes she lie buried.

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,

And the fleshed soldier, rough and hard of heart,

In liberty of bloody hand shall rage

With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass

Your fresh fair virgins, and your flowering infants.

This speech motivates Katherine to learnEnglish: she does so not out of playfulness, orbecause she is attracted to Henry, butbecause she has no choice – she haswitnessed the power and potential for crueltyof her country’s oppressors. English is thelanguage of the occupying power and she hasto learn it. It is to her a hateful language andhaving to listen to it with the knowledge thather fate is already inexorably linked to that ofHenry (as the Chorus explains at the start ofAct 3), transforms the scene from a comicinterlude to a central moment in Hytner’sproduction. Katherine’s faltering attempts tolearn Henry’s language (contrast the words forparts of the human body she chooses to learnwith those he uses) becomes a moving portraitof a young woman and her friend clutching atstraws, clutching at the discipline ofmemorising unfamiliar words in order to blotout the memory of the terrible images conjuredup by Henry. Katherine perhaps initiates herlanguage lesson to avoid being swept intodespair by what is happening to her countryand its people.

Again, a comparison with modern mediacoverage of war: reporters today invariablyoffer insights into the lives and experiences ofordinary civilians who become the victims ofwar and show how the aggressors – ourselvesin the recent war with Iraq for instance – areperceived.

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

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The French King broadcasts to his nation(Act 3 Scene v) At the start of Act 3 scene 5 the National’sproduction shows the King of France preparingto make a television broadcast to his nation.

Some 50 years previous to the scene, theEnglish army was victorious in France underHenry’s ancestor, Edward the Black Prince.Word is reaching the French that Henry is nolonger a dissolute youth, and might just turnout to be another Black Prince. The tennisballs were a massive miscalculation.

The French King sits in a director’s chair,surrounded by his nobles, including theDauphin and the Constable of France, whilst amake-up artist prepares him for the camera.Modern wars, like the recently concluded warin Iraq, are fought not only on the battlefield,but also via the airwaves. The podium wheeledout for the King reminds the audience ofcountless political broadcasts by leaders ofstate. The King’s broadcast, beginning “’Tiscertain he hath passed the river Somme” andcontinuing “Up, princes, and with spirit ofhonour edged/More sharper than your swordshie to the field!”, down to “Bring him ourprisoner” was projected ‘live’ onto a huge up-stage screen. This attempt to rouse a nation inresponse to the threat posed by an externalaggressor carries with it the ironic evocation ofthe names of those French knights – CharlesDelabreth, Jaques Chatillon, the Dukes ofAlençon, Brabant and Burgundy – amongothers, soon to be listed in the post-Agincourtroll call of the dead. Their names wouldsubsequently be chiselled on the warmemorials of France.

Henry’s wobble (Act 3 Scene vi)Despite the heroics of Exeter at the bridge, thecampaign is still not going well for Henry andhis army. Pistol brings the news that Henry’sold drinking companion, Bardolph, has beenarrested for robbing a church. Pistol’s attemptsto bribe Llewellyn in order to get his friendreleased predictably fail; the latter is a manwho lives by the rules of war and will not listento special pleading. Henry enters to hear the

news of Exeter’s stirring deeds. Theunfortunate Bardolph is brought onto the stageclosely guarded. The King looks at him – doeshe recognise him? Bardolph smiles nervouslyas his crime is expounded. Without warning,Henry draws his pistol and shoots Bardolph inthe head at point blank range, in front of hismen. (In the playtext, Henry orders hisexecution but does not carry it out.) The shockis immediate and profound. What does it sayof Henry’s state of mind? Before there is timeto react, the French herald, Montjoy, comeswith his message of defiance. Henry and hismen listen in silence, and at the end of hisspeech, Henry responds “My army [is] but aweak and sickly guard.../We would not seek abattle as we are.” His soldiers are surprisedand alarmed. Is this a tacticalmisrepresentation or a frank admission?

The French prepare for battle (Act 3 Scenevii)The action of the play shifts to another locationon the same battlefield: the French officers arewaiting for dawn to herald the start of thefighting. The Constable, the Duke of Orleans,the Duke of Bourbon, and the Dauphin aresitting at a small table, drinking and playingdice. Their talk focuses not on the enemy, buton the Dauphin’s extravagant praise for hishorse. Shakespeare may here be invitinganother comparison between the two leaders,but as the scene develops, the Dauphin’sobsession does not obscure the fact that he isa genuine rival to Henry. The characters aremore than mere stereotypes. They have beenup all night drinking, and whatever confidencethey may have in their troops, they must beaware that death may face them in themorning.

Henry prepares for battle (Act 4 Scene i) There is considerable irony in the Chorus’sattempts to build up the image of Henry’s“ruined band” by claiming that all the soldiers“pluck comfort from his looks” as he passesamongst them crying “Praise and glory on hishead.” The following scene shows thedisguised Henry, far from inspiring his men,falling into a bitter argument with three of

The play

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them. The King’s disguise allows theopportunity for ordinary men to display boththeir fear and their deep scepticism. MichaelWilliams, the ordinary soldier, reminds hiscommanding officer and King (and theaudience) what war usually means for ordinarymen: “I am afear’d there are few die well thatdie in battle.” In confronting Williams, theKing’s anger almost gets the better of him, andhe behaves like the Hal of old, indulging in anegotistical testosterone-fuelled struggle,inappropriate to both his station and thesituation.

Henry is unable to mix with his men without aquarrel breaking out, and he is more isolatedthan ever at the end of this scene as he makeshis impassioned cry “What infinite heart’sease/Must kings neglect that private menenjoy.” Before he took on the burden of hisoffice he had friends, and even, in Falstaff,perhaps a surrogate father. Now Falstaff andmany of the friends are dead, Bardolph shotby Henry himself. On the eve of the greatesttest he has faced in his life he appears to haveno friends.

The Battle of Agincourt (Act 4 scene iii)And yet, as he addresses his bedraggled armybefore the final battle in the most famousspeech of the play, he speaks not of friends(as he did in the speech before Harfleur) but ofhis “band of brothers”. That suggestion of

intimacy with his troops may not simply be arhetorical trick, but the result of his youth,when he spent many hours in the company ofhis friends, enjoying jokes, and sharing stories,and was, if only temporarily, “Hal” rather thanHarry the King. Living with other men incombat – men who have to live, eat, sleep,wash, and move their bowels, in continuoussight and sound of one another for weeks onend – produces comradeship, and indeed,temporary brotherhood.

The National’s production stages episodes thataren’t actually in the play. The Chorus asks theaudience to “think, when we talk of horses,that you see them”, but, in this modern dressproduction, the audience see two military LandRovers (one French, one English) that drive onand off the stage at various stages during thebattle of Agincourt. The actors who form thearmies of England and France are alsoequipped with highly realistic weapons, riflesfor the men, pistols for officers. These gunshave electronic triggers that, when pulled,send a signal to the sound box at the rear ofthe Olivier stalls so that the sound of firingrings out across the space. The stage is attimes filled with military spectacle that is filmicin its intensity and realism. Guns are fired,grenades thrown, mines exploded. Smokebecomes the literal “fog” of war as the actorsperform their highly choreographed moves inthe form of advances, skirmishes, and retreatswith added dialogue of the “incoming!”“skirmish!” “Throw grenades” variety.

Why go to these lengths? The Olivier stage,stripped back to what Hytner called its “barebones”, is a huge space, and spectacleundoubtedly helps to fill it in a way thatengages the eye of the spectator. But theproduction uses spectacle not simply becausemany in the audience are familiar with fictionalwars fought on film (and during the pre-production real war on live television). Thedirector wanted the audience to see forthemselves a little of the circumstances thatmade Henry V a successful leader of men,someone able to keep his head in desperatelydifficult and dangerous circumstances,

The play

Faz Singhateh, Adrian Lester,Tom McKay

photo Ivan Kyncl

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someone prepared to shed his own blood aswell as that of his soldiers. Watching the manin the heat of battle illustrates that at times heis able to live up to his own rhetoric, and thatof the Chorus: “The warlike Harry, like himself,assume the port of Mars” and becomes the“noble Harry” rather than the sometimespetulant, volatile young man we have alsoseen. Showing Harry in battle with his menshows us a man with a surrogate family, showsus a man comfortable and relaxed in thecompany of other men. In contrast with thepolitical Harry, the sharp-suited premier figureof the first scene, or the elegant young man inmilitary dress uniform who takes the stage inthe last act, the uniform of battle – the fatiguesand the steel helmets – dissolves differencesof rank. The shared peril democratises thecompany, making them, if only temporarily,“family”, the band of brothers. Within this kingthere is a divided self; Hal/Harry, theimpetuous, funny, loving young man who wasable to lose himself as the drinking companionof Jack Falstaff, versus the lonely and oftenangry king struggling to come to terms with hisfate, who rages against the accusations madeby Michael Williams. The two sides of thesame person are fused in the heat of battle;Henry finds himself at last at ease with himselfand the role he has been born to play.

Monsieur le Fer (Act 4 Scene iv)The spectacle of battle can appear like theterrible thing it doubtless is, but Shakespearesuggests the moral ambiguity that times ofextreme tension and mortal danger reveal. Thefighting demonstrates Henry’s better qualitiesas a leader, but it also shows the mock-heroicaction of grubby but realistic intensity. Just as“brave York” on his knee begs to take the leadin the coming final battle, Pistol is about to, asthe Chorus puts it, “much disgrace /The nameof Agincourt” by forcing a French soldier to hisknees and threatening to rob him or slit histhroat. The scene undercuts the linguisticflourishes and idealism of his old friend Hal:“Except, O/Signieur, thou do give to meegregious ransom, I will fetch thy rim out at thythroat in drops of crimson blood.” Only thediscovery that the man can ransom himself

saves him. Pistol’s self-interest overrides anyother, but he is only performing a commonritual of the battlefield where, as the ordinarysoldiers like Michael Williams know all too well,the wealthy can buy their lives from the poor.

The Killing Fields (Act 4 Scene vi)In the next scene a line of hooded Frenchprisoners (the image came from pressphotographs of hooded Iraqi prisoners) waspulled in a line across the back of the stageand made to sit, guarded by armed Englishsoldiers. The previous scene showed Pistolsparing the life of a French prisoner, butundermining the ideal of disinterested heroicaction by proclaiming naked and aggressiveself-interest. It is now followed by a speechthat narrates a classically heroic chivalric storyfrom the battle: the deaths of York and Suffolk.The story is told by the King’s uncle, Exeter,and stresses not the pain and suffering of theirdying, but the way in which the two menshared an intimate, bloody, and passionateunion in the fellowship of death:

So did he turn, and over Suffolk’s neckHe threw his wounded arm, and kissed his lips,And so espoused to death, with blood he

sealedA testament of noble-ending love.

Who can say whether or not what Exeter saysis true? It may be, but it may also be astatement of what Exeter, Henry IV’s brother,would like to believe. But as the actor tells thestory, everything else on the previously busyand noisy Olivier stage goes quiet. Theevocative language creates a vivid picture ofthe scene in the theatre of the mind’s eye.Having heard his uncle’s homo-erotic tale “withmistful eyes”, the King’s attention is abruptlydrawn back to the battlefield – “the Frenchhave reinforced their scattered men.” Stridingpurposefully upstage, Henry looks at Llewellynand gives him the command: “Then everysoldier kill his prisoners!”, an instructionomitted from both Branagh’s and Olivier’sfilms. With the age of chivalry already a dustymemory, Henry now commits a war crime. Hisdecision, however barbaric, does obey the

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remorseless logic of war: the French arestaging a counter-attack; the English soldiersguarding the prisoners are needed to helprepel it. The soldiers are ordered to shoot butthey refuse, and as one or two prisoners makea run for their lives, Llewellyn massacres themall in a burst of semi-automatic fire.

Killing Boys (Act 4 Scene vii)Ironically, it is the same soldier, Llewellyn, whovoices concern over the French killing of “theboys” because “it is expressly against the lawof arms”. So too is the killing of unarmedprisoners. Llewellyn’s obedience to his kingmakes him a war criminal, a great irony in onewho makes so much of the importance ofplaying by the “rules of war”. The exchangebetween himself and Gower that follows thediscovery of the body of the Boy, killed onstage in this production by pursuing French, isoften played for laughs because of Llewellyn’sconfusion of Macedon and Monmouth. Butsince in this performance it was enacted in theknowledge that Llewellyn has himselfcommitted a gross breach of the rules of war,and that his beloved leader has ordered him todo so, the words of the Welshman take ontragic rather than comic overtones. He isconfused because the events of the past fewminutes have thrown his whole moral worldinto chaos. The code he lived by has beenbreached by himself and by his sovereign.

In this same scene, Montjoy brings the newsthat the “day is yours” and asks for the mutualobservance of conventions of war: “O give usleave great King,/To view the field in safety,and dispose of their dead bodies!” The requestgranted, the King’s eye lights upon MichaelWilliams, the soldier who challenged him onthe eve of battle and who is now displayingthe King’s glove in his helmet. Henry sets up atrap. He orders Williams to fetch hiscommanding officer and, when he leaves to doso, calls Llewellyn and asks the unfortunateman to “wear thou this favour for me, and stickit in thy cap” thus setting Michael Williams ona collision course with a senior officer. This isan extraordinarily petty and personal act ofvanity taken at the height of Henry’s triumph,and Hytner has him, after explaining what hehas done to the incredulous Warwick andGloucester, make a gesture of apology toExeter by holding up both hands, palms facingout, with a sheepish grin on his face, as if tosay, “sorry, mea culpa.” Clearly Hal stillinhabits Henry.

Another kind of battle (Act 4 Scene viii)In the next scene, post-Agincourt, the directorintroduced an episode showing the Englisharmy relaxing – they are attending a party withbeer, loud music and some wild cavorting. Asthe soldiers lose themselves in the noise ofHeavy Metal, Llewellyn sees Williams andconfronts him. The result is a pitched battlethat draws in all the men until the entrance ofWarwick breaks up the fight. Henry follows andin the exchange with Williams reveals the truththat the glove is his, and that Williams was theordinary soldier who had dared (unknowingly)to challenge the king of England. In thisproduction, on hearing Williams’ brave anddirect response “Your majesty came not likeyourself…” Henry moves as if to throw apunch at him, but in the split second before hecan do so, Exeter takes a small step betweenthem, looks his nephew in the eye, and with aslight shake of the head signals that this is notthe action of a king. So, instead of fighting, asHal might have done, Henry takes the gloveand makes the necessary public gesture ofgenerosity: “Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove

The play

Peter Blythe, Adrian Lester,Tom Mckay

photo Ivan Kyncl

Page 11: Workpack - National Theatrelater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt The play Adrian Lester photo Ivan Kyncl. national theatre education workpack 5 (Act 4 scene i), he reflects

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with crowns,/And give it to this fellow…” Thisis another lesson in self-fashioning that theexperiences of the war offer the young King.

None else of nameThe scene concludes with Montjoy’s entrancewith the list of those killed in battle, Frenchand English. The French have lost tenthousand men, the English twenty-nine. InOlivier’s 1944 film, released to coincide withthe invasion of Normandy by the allied forces,the number of English dead was multipliedbecause Olivier thought no one who hadactually lived through a war would believe it.The names of the French dead listed by Henryecho the French king’s broadcast, laudingthese same men.

The final act (Act 5 Scene i–ii)The director cut the episode in which Llewellynconfronts Pistol and makes him eat a leek.Instead, the performance moves from the dirtand grime of the Agincourt battlefield to thesuggested baroque splendour of the FrenchCourt. On the stage is an ornate sofa flankedby two elaborate gilded armchairs. To stage-right, a dozen smaller chairs in neat rows areset out, and a smaller number on the left. Theformer are for the ranks of the English nobility,the latter an eloquent reminder of the few nowrequired to accommodate the post-wardepleted ranks of the French nobility.

In the National’s production the direction of thefinal act of the play makes clear that thepresence of Henry and his commanders ishumiliating to the French. Although the FrenchKing speaks words of welcome, “Right joyousare we to behold your face,/Most worthybrother of England”, the way he delivers them,still seated, shows that the opposite is true.Burgundy’s speech recounts in stark terms thecatastrophe that the war has been to France:

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,

Even so our houses and our selves and our children

Have lost, or do not learn from want of time,

The sciences that should become our country,

But grow like savages, as soldiers will

That nothing do but meditate on blood

To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire

And everything that seems unnatural.

The King of France has not yet agreed to theterms of surrender, and Henry says to himbluntly, “you must buy that peace…”Negotiations commence with the French King,his few remaining courtiers, and the Englishparty led by Exeter, leaving Henry alone onstage with the Princess Katherine and hercompanion, Alice. Henry must conquerKatherine and make her his trophy bride, andthrough this marriage cement an alliance withthe old enemy. The confrontation between thetwo is usually played as a conventionalromantic wooing scene with plenty of comedythrown in. In Hytner’s production however, thescene has a different, darker, tone. Henry isamusing in his attempts to woo a stonewallingKatherine, who fails to respond to hisovertures. This is the man, after all, who isultimately responsible for the rape of hercountry, and the death of many of hercountrymen. Henry’s action in insisting that hebe allowed to kiss her, first her hand, then herlips, despite the protestations of bothKatherine and Alice that to do so will violatethe customs of France, signifies thesupremacy of his culture over that of theFrench. Henry casually dismisses herobjections “O Kate, nice customs curtsy togreat kings”.

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

Page 12: Workpack - National Theatrelater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt The play Adrian Lester photo Ivan Kyncl. national theatre education workpack 5 (Act 4 scene i), he reflects

national theatre education workpack 12

The defeated French now re-enter, havinggiven the concessions that will result in peace.The scene ends with Henry’s final act ofcultural imperialism when, before her fatherand mother and all the assembled French, hetakes Katherine, and kisses her “as mysovereign Queen.” The performance, however,did not end on a note of conquest; afterdrinking the toast proposed by Queen Isabel,Henry holds out his arm to Katherine to escorther off. She, however, refuses the gesture;silently turning on her elegant heel, she walksoff stage leaving Henry awkwardly maroonedand able only to follow her lead.

The last word is that of the Chorus. She oncemore apologises for the inadequacy of thestory we have watched. Her “star of England”may not have been eclipsed, but he has beenshown to be something much more than theone-dimensional super hero, the “warlikeHarry” described at the start of the play. Wehave seen Hal struggling to learn how to playthe role of Henry, seen Henry both as “nobleHarry” and as a war criminal. The answers to

the questions posed at the start of thiscommentary are not straightforward, this is aman and a play full of moral complexity andambiguity in which war is capable of bringingout the best and worst in men. A moderndress production of a history play inevitablyforegrounds the scepticism and ambivalenceof our times.

The play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

Page 13: Workpack - National Theatrelater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt The play Adrian Lester photo Ivan Kyncl. national theatre education workpack 5 (Act 4 scene i), he reflects

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1. Both Olivier’s 1944 film and KennethBranagh’s 1989 version are available on video.Comparisons between the two teach us a lotabout the play and the historical context inwhich the films were made. Screen extractsfrom them side-by-side, asking the students tocompare and contrast, for example, theepisode showing Henry’s speech beforeHarfleur. How is this staged in NicholasHytner’s production? .

2. Have some large pieces of blank paper andfelt-tip pens ready. Ask the students to work ingroups of 4 – 6 and make two lists of wordsthat, to them, suggest the positive and thenegative qualities in Henry. Give them fiveminutes or so and then ask them: are the listsroughly equal in length, i.e. in their minds dohis positive and negative qualities balance, oris there a distinct leaning to one? Which wordsappear most often on all the lists?

3. Ask the students to think about the ways inwhich war is represented in the 21st century,on television and in newspapers andmagazines. In the recent war with Iraq, whatwere the main stories from that conflict thathave remained in the students’ memories, andwhy? Looking back on productions of Henry V,which episodes from the play or film arerecalled most clearly and why is that?

4. How are the wars of the past represented inthe present? Ask the students to find two (ormore if possible) war memorials in their townor city. They should describe the memorial,what it looks like, how large or small it is,whether it has any pieces of sculpture, and, ifso, what are they like, figurative or abstract?What is engraved on the memorial, what kindof words are used?

5. Design a post-Iraq war memorial. Design awar memorial commemorating the battle ofAgincourt – include words from the play.

6. Visit a local art gallery and look at paintingsand drawings of conflict. How has the artistcomposed the picture? If you had only threewords to sum up the image which would youuse, e.g. bold, bloody, brave, or dark, despair,destruction?

7. Work in small groups using “sculpting”techniques and get the students to createimages from the play using the language astheir inspiration. For example, give each groupa word or phrase from the text such as “imitatethe action of the tiger” or, “Now set the teeth,and stretch the nostril wide,/Hold hard thebreath, and bend up every spirit/To his fullheight!” (3.i). Give them a few minutes to workon the task and then select two or threeimages and have the rest of the group look atthem and comment.

8. Nicholas Hytner’s production was in moderndress. Ask the students to research inmagazines and/or newspapers forphotographs of people that might serve as theinspiration for a costume designer working ona new film of Henry V set in the present day.

9. Henry V is often held up as a model ofleadership, even featuring in managementtraining courses. List Henry’s leadershipskills/qualities.

10. How does Henry manage to persuade mento risk their lives, for example, before the wallsof Harfleur and before the battle of Agincourt?Look at the language of those two famous

Teaching the play

Adrian Lester

photo Ivan Kyncl

Page 14: Workpack - National Theatrelater in the play, before the battle of Agincourt The play Adrian Lester photo Ivan Kyncl. national theatre education workpack 5 (Act 4 scene i), he reflects

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speeches, have them reproduced in large printor on an OHP and ask the students, working ingroups of 4–6, to highlight no more than 6 keywords. How much agreement is there in theclass as a whole on what constitutes the mostsignificant words?

11. Status is very important in Henry V. Usinga list of all the named characters, organise aline in which the character with the higheststatus is first and so on down to the one withthe lowest status of all. Obviously Henry willbe first in line, but there is plenty of scope forproductive argument about the order of therest of the characters. Who, for example, hasthe higher status amongst Bardolph, Pistol,Nym, and Mistress Quickly?

12. Make a status line representing thesituation at the start of a performance (on filmor on stage) and then make another for theend. Are they different? Who is missing at theend? Whose status has risen, whose statushas dropped?

13. One of the benefits of mass mediacoverage in the West of recent conflicts hasbeen to make us more aware of the sufferingof innocent victims. In the case of Iraq, it hasalso offered us an insight into what it might belike to be occupied by a foreign power. Try thissimple exercise that reveals how importantterritory is. Ask the students to work in pairs.One imagines a circle in which they stand, andcalls it their territorial space. They experimentwith their partner signalling him or her toapproach in silence. Ask both to stop at thepoint when one or other feels uncomfortable,or too close. Where is the invisible line thatmarks the circumference of territorial space?Does it change with different people?

Teaching the play


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