Changing Styles in Shakespeare by Berry Ralph;

Author:Berry, Ralph; [Berry, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1474752
Publisher: Routledge

The Shakespeare Quarterly reviewer concurred:

Henry V . . . was allowed to grow as a man and as a king in equal proportions . . . Mr Plummer was able to make Henry V seem a positive saint when confronted by his casuistical bishops, a warrior when compared with the vaunting and empty French nobles, a man of quick temper when he walked amongst his private soldiers, and a humble but ardent lover when he confronted Kate.22

The reviews suggest no hint of directorial reservation, based on the clerics’ manoeuvres. The most interesting feature of the production was its French-Canadian casting for the French parts, which created a dimension not available outside Canada: ‘For Canadians the play also became an extremely vital political tract as the last act slowly worked out a compromise between the beaten French and the victorious English.’23 The French-Canadian connection aside, this was a well-judged restatement of the traditional reading, centred on a romantic actor of the highest quality.

All that had changed by 1966. For his second essay, Michael Langham offered a new concept. The change of tone was marked, as his programme-notes divulge:

What has this jingoistic national anthem of a play to do with our age? It glorifies war, exploits the inanities of nationalism, is offensively class-conscious, and – as if to encourage philistine thinking in Canada – is patently and exultantly anti-French. Why then are we performing it? – Just to satisfy those who only think old-world Establishment thoughts?24

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