It’s 1940, and as the air raids of WWII ring out across London, a group of school kids keep their spirits up by performing Shakespeare. They plough through the end of Richard III, and when their teacher crosses it off the blackboard and writes “Henry V” as the next endeavour, the kids cheer.
What happens for the rest of the show is really quite breathtaking. The audience is essentially watching a group of school children perform Henry V in some kind of war-era Dead Poets Society, and as the war unfolds in the play, with King Henry leading England to battle with France, the war outside their classroom doors becomes ever more threatening.
As much as it sounds like it, this isn’t some highbrow experiment in meta-theatre, or even really a play-within-a-play. There is a subplot of the kids at war that exists concurrently to the plot of Shakespeare’s play – and there are a few moments when they break from the script and talk in the world of their setting (albeit in Shakespeare’s language) – but this still doesn’t detract from the main story. It’s more a new way of engaging with the text and giving it new meaning.
The ensemble cast is phenomenal, and breathes new life into a story that’s so often played by tired older actors. Anna Gardiner’s set design is beautiful to look at and a little bit DIY in its approach to props and setting. After all, we are kind of watching a school play. But let’s think of it as a school with some damn fine actors and a swathe of great ideas. This show has been touring right around regional Australia for the past four months, so the closing Sydney run has the production firing on all cylinders.
4.5/5 stars
Henry V is playing at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House until Sunday November 16.
