Film Review - NT Live: Henry V
Images courtesy of Sharmill Films.
Amongst William Shakespeare’s historical plays, Henry V stands out as not only ending on a triumphant note, but as a victorious statement on nationalism and divine conquest. Unlike other adaptations, Max Webster doesn’t attempt to direct a simple modern adaptation, instead attempts to be critical of the play’s themes of nationalistic glorification of warfare, thus affecting the stage’ interpretation overall to mixed results.
National Theatre Live: Henry V follows the newly crowned titular king (Kit Harrington), intent on finishing his ancestor’s dream and staking their claim to the kingdom of France. What ensues is trials and tribulations of Henry’s military regime, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War.
Filmed at the Donmar Warehouse, it is evident that Webster and his creative team’s usage of video projects and raised platforms are an attempt to work around the limitations of the medium to project a cinematic and larger-than-life scope of its protagonist.
Though more noticeable in Part 1 than Part 2, the stage adaptation suffers from a lack of smooth transition between scenes, detracting from the effectiveness of its creative choices—such as the subtitles projected on-screen when characters are speaking French, or actors playing multiple roles—and becomes tiring quickly. The choreography of the war sequences feels neither unique, nor engaging (the lighting doesn’t help), while the music choices come off as almost parodic, though that’s Shakespeare's fault for not predicting the rise of Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’.
Webster strains to provide a refreshing and original approach to their modernisation of the source material. Whilst the play falters at fully immersing the audience in the setting of a modern-day war drama, it succeeds on executing the themes about the militarisation of kingship and contemporary warfare.
Kit Harrington’s performance outshines the play’s flaws as the biggest draw to this adaptation. Harrington plays Henry as a complicated Machievellian-like politician, willing to accomplish his goals at all costs. In every scene he performs, Harrington shows the effectiveness of his interpretation, that every action is a calculated political manoeuvre. The play’s prologue takes a page out of Kenneth Branagh’s ‘book’— by borrowing scenes from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part I and Part II, it contextualises Henry’s development from a roguish prince to a chivalrous king. That is, if one exemplifies chivalry by going to war over tennis balls, killing old friends out of principle and the violent threats of putting babies' heads on spikes.
Millicent Wong, who gives an equally stunning performance as the Chorus, Gower and the Boy (Girl), provides the overarching thesis to Henry’s trajectory as a conqueror, that he ‘made our England bleed’ as the price for his quest of glory. Wong’s delivery of her lines, particularly her final monologue, highlights the ultimate hollow nature behind the pro-war message of the original play. It’s hard to stomach the glory of war in our modern-day landscape of international conflict such as the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Webster’s Henry V is ultimately a disjointed and familiar take on the bard’s play. However, Harrington excels at recontextualising the play in its exploring the themes of war, nationalism and leadership through the prism of the twenty-first century. It may not be the most effective modernisation, but Harrington’s larger-than-life performance is certainly worth the watch.
NT Live: Henry V is playing in select cinemas from Saturday the 25th of June. For tickets, locations and more info, click here.