Theatre review: Henry V, or Harry England (Shakespeare's Globe)

Now I'm not saying things in my day job have been a bit fraught lately, but there's been a lot of office discussions about the theory that sociopaths make the most natural and successful company directors. It's a thought you can't help but apply to one of England's best-loved kings when, as with the Globe Ensemble's Trilogy Day performances, the same company play Henry V following straight on from Henry IV Part One and Part Two. For those first two plays designer Jessica Worrall draped the theatre's middle gallery with the standards of many noble houses involved in the fighting, but now they've been replaced and it's just Henry's three golden lions that adorn the whole theatre; a sign that there's no more time for infighting and now everyone's together under one banner against a foreign foe? Or that it's now the Plantagenet way or the highway?

The Henry IV plays were renamed by the Ensemble to reflect who they see as their true protagonists, but there can be little doubt who that is in this concluding instalment so Henry V is retitled Harry England, firmly establishing the whole country as synonymous with the person of the King.

Sarah Bedi and Federay Holmes' production has mercifully cut short the opening justification for why the King of England should also by rights rule France; it is after all just an excuse for Henry (Sarah Amankwah) to start a foreign war, at best because he wants the distraction to stop the infighting in his own kingdom, at worst because he just wants the land and glory. And, having seen him take on a couple of different personas while Prince of Wales, he now uses several more to get his victory. From manipulator when he discovers a plot against him, to frothing, furious lunatic when threatening the town of Harfleur, to stirring speaker to his army.

Amankwah is convincing at every abrupt personality shift, which only makes him less trustworthy. As well as being able to turn on the charm for the purposes of manipulation, what makes the label of sociopath stick is Henry's total lack of empathy or sense of responsibility: When he walks among his soldiers in disguise they argue that while their own sins should rightly be on their own heads, it's on the King's alone if he risks their lives for the wrong reasons. The reasons behind this war are indeed spurious, but Henry is quick to absolve himself off all responsibility. I was surprised though at one way the production played down his emotionally distant nature - after establishing John Leader's Bardolph as hugely sympathetic throughout the day, I thought more could have been done to bring home just which character Henry casually condems to death for the exact kind of behaviour they would once have got up to together.

Having praised the Ensemble's use of gender-blind casting in my previous review, I felt they stumbled a bit at the last hurdle with Colin Hurley's Katherine - having the oldest male cast member play the young French princess comes closer than I like to laughing at the man in the dress, in a way I don't think it would have if he'd swapped roles with Leaphia Darko's Alice. On the other hand having spent three plays with Jonathan Broadbent in comic drag as Mistress Quickly brings a strange kind of dignity to her eulogy for Falstaff (even if Broadbent manages to get a dirty joke in there somewhere as well.)

Henry IV having now shuffled off, Philip Arditti gets to play kings on both sides of the Channel as he takes on the ruler of France, with Sophie Russell getting stuck into his bonkers son the Dauphin, whose love for his horse is a bit worryingly on the Alan Strang side. And in an echo of the potentially dangerous practical jokes of the Eastcheap scenes, Hal sets Williams (Nina Bowers) and Fluellen (Steffan Donnelly) against each other for his own amusement. If last year's Ensemble had mixed results, this year's has come back more confident and with a lot of lessons learnt. This Trilogy isn't the most memorable take on the History plays you'll ever see, but they do provide an entertaining and at times troubling through-line of Hal's development into Henry V, Amankwah confidently leading the company through a day of theatre that admirably rarely feels as long as it actually is.

Henry V, or Harry England by William Shakespeare is booking in repertory until the 11th of October at Shakespeare's Globe.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Tristram Kenton.