Henry V is one of Shakespeare’s most popular history plays, written at around 1599. It forms the fourth part of a tetralogy dealing with the historical rise of the English royal House of Lancaster ( Pre Henry V: Richard II, I Henry IV, and II Henry IV ).Henry is a figure of heroism, but can at times be portrayed as the opposite, lead by power and honour he invades countries, slaughters thousands with his army and sentences his subjects to death. Shakespeare examines the meaning of being a King and criticises and idolises royalty throughout his plays. In Henry V Shakespeare portrays Henry as a silver tongued, powerful, motivational man with elegance and poise, he paints him as almost god like in the respect he is granted by his country and the battles he wins despite the odds never really being in his favour. The play is full of Henry’s noble speeches, heroic battles, and victory’s against all odds.
Contemporary theatre contains a modern aspect of technicality visually, elements of dance and music, costumes, set and something more reflective of our time. Taking a Shakespearean play such as Henry V which at the time would of lacked certain extravagance visually, and would have relied mainly on the actors and the language of the text to enchant the audience and applying a contemporary approach will always add a new body and experience of the pay. When applying a contemporary approach to such a play a strong understanding of the plot, writers voice and ideas are fundamental, as the true moral of the play can become lost if too many modern elements are applied or the choice of era or setting does not fit.
Looking at Nicholas Hytner's adaption of Henry V put on by the National Theatre, the war zone of Iraq setting alines well with the content of the play as it is based around a war between two kingdoms (countries), it becomes relatable as the war in Iraq is of our time and we are aware of the extreme bloodshed that is happening there, our scene is immediately set. Adrian Lester who plays the role of Henry V as an Army leader, leads his troops through the war zone, and creates a motivational atmosphere, the similarity between a King, and an army leader in this play coincides beautifully as both embody the same goal as a leader and are both ranked the highest. In an interview with Nicholas Hytner's, he states that ‘ Most of this company had read the Henry IV plays within a couple of weeks of rehearsal and I think Adrian knew them very well before we started. The rehearsal room was littered with material about the historical Henry V and about contemporary warfare. People were bringing stuff in all the time.’ this shows that with the perfect balance of the historical understanding of the text and knowledge of the chosen contemporary themes you can create contemporary theatre at its very best.
With our adaption of Henry V we all have a strong understanding of the historical era of WW1, and more definite the women who worked in the factories at that time, we have done this by watching videos, doing physical workshops and looking individually at the historical context of the time. Reading the play, and getting to know the language and the historical context of the original play also helped with the understanding of the text and the origins of the setting. When knowing this the adaption becomes clearer to build upon as we have the balance of the contemporary and historical aspects of the play, the character I play of Henry V is both a woman in a factory with a background of wife awaiting the return of her husband and a powerful and valiant King, and with secure knowledge of the backgrounds of both characters i can play my role with accuracy and confidence.
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