Donmar Warehouse, March 2022
Impressive production design, but a flat central performance and a lack of directorial clarity.
I once read that the first rule of criticism is to judge the piece for what it is, not what it could have been — but in this case the production itself appeared at times to struggle with what it could have been. I’m not sure at what point in the production process Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began, but the echoes of modern war-crimes in the production led me to think that perhaps the war had begun and the team tried to adjust to address it, but was not been able to fully follow through with that direction.
Making a grand spectacle of war, Henry V often treads the line between criticism and almost propagandistic glorification. The director, Max Webster, has attempted to use the play to address the horrors of modern warfare, but without shedding its seemingly jingoistic veneer of action-movie spectacle. He does this by jam packing the production design with flashy costumes, pyrotechnics, and explosive sound design. He could have done without all that by looking under the facade of patriotic fervor and spectacle to the story of a young man hardening under pressure, being hardened from a party boy into a war criminal by the furnace of war and power. The story is already strikingly relevant, but this production obscured Henry’s arc of transformation into brutal dictator in its very efforts to highlight it. The pyrotechnics and modern dress buried the play’s dramaturgy instead of propping it up.
This was not helped by Kit Harington’s performance as the titular king. His Henry appeared to go through no changes whatsoever, something that is so important for this role. His delivery was one-note. Not every scene in this play is a rousing speech, and not every rousing speech needs to be shouted in the same tone on every line. I couldn’t decide if Harington was doing a king voice, a Shakespeare voice, or a stage acting voice, but whatever it was it was canned, monotonous, and tiring.
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