Analysis of Henry V performance- Kenneth Branagh

I watched Kenneth Branagh's performance as Henry V in the 1989 adaption of Henry V, paying particular focus to the Crispin day speech which i have been looking at. In his performance of this particular speech I found his choices in voice and physicality inspiring as he embodied a powerful king and in captured the meaning of the speech. 

I found a certain elegance in his posture and his voice felt natural and proud, the delivery was inspiring and was done in a way that was light but powerful, this gave the impression of a friendly relationship between him and the people he was talking to (his knights, battle men). The confidence of his character were shown not only through posture and the way he stood such as broad shoulders and open arms but parts where he would have a casual walk but be delivering his voice on a loud scale pronouncing each word and emphasising words that carried a powerful hit. The pronunciation consisted of the rolling of R’s and the strong carry through from the beginning of the word to the word ending, for example the word Crispian/ Crispin was always a mixture of those two elements making a strong Ki sound carrying straight on the the rolling of the Ris and hitting the En sound at the end. 

Other parts of the speech that i was drawn to was towards the ending with ‘ we few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ this section of the king reassuring his subjects of their loyalty to him and his loyalty to them exudes a brotherly tone, gentle and slightly emotional, this is then followed by a rise in tempo and volume securing his final motivational push ‘And gentlemen in England now abed’ and is then ended with an emphasis on the words ‘Crispins day’, the elongation of the words Crispin and day close the speech and draw the attention of the audience to the name this results in its memorability. 

From this i can take so many elements of Branaghs performance and help it inspire me to deliver a similar feel for my version. Things to help me with my Crispins day performance:

• Differentiation in tone and volume 
• The brotherly and close relationship between the king and the people around him 
• Posture 
• Confidence 
• Natural feel 
• Emotion 
• Pronunciation of words, he is a King so speaks the best English 
• Strength and hitting of words and their endings