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smallhobbitJust under two months ago I received an email telling me about Antic Disposition touring various cathedrals with their production of Henry V. Ooh, I thought, I wonder if they're coming anywhere near me. So I looked and they were performing in Gloucester Cathedral. At which point attendance was a no brainer, the only question was whether SM wanted to come too.
I had assumed the performance would be in the main part of the cathedral (the nave), but in fact it was in the choir (technically quire). For those unfamiliar with cathedral layouts - Gloucester choir has three rows of pews on either side of a narrowish space. Picture taken by Freddie Stewart (Henry V). The stained glass at the end was erected in 1350, 65 years before Agincourt. The audience sat in the pews - we had paid extra for front pew spaces - and the play took part in the space between the pews. A very intimate setting.
The action opens with wounded French and English soldiers in 1915 being evacuated to a field hospital near Azincourt. In order to raise their spirits they, together with two nurses, put on a performance of Henry V. The actors wear their 1915 uniforms all the time, occasionally changing coats depending on which side they are supposed to be portraying. The props are very limited - the bishops wear cardboard mitres, the kings cardboard crowns and the tennis balls are rolled bandages. But it all makes sense, because this is not Henry V being staged as a WWI production, but WWI wounded soldiers staging a 1415 production.
The start of the play is very clearly mirroring the departure of the troops for France in 1914, and the triumphal attack on Harfleur showed the initial enthusiasm for the war. And so the play continued until the point at which Bardolph is to be executed. The soldier who was playing Bardolph was suffering with shell shock and at the threat of being shot he started to shake and ended up lying on the floor needing medical attention. At which point the lights went out for the interval.
And then, having heightened the emotions, they played Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow during the interval. Butterworth was killed at the Somme in 1916. The whole performance was interspersed with a number of songs, based on poems from AE Houseman's A Shropshire Lad. Most of the poems had new settings, but they kept Butterworth's setting of The Lads in their Hundreds.
The second act begins with a much heightened awareness of the effect of the war on these men. So when we reach the part where Henry is walking amongst his troops pre-Agincourt and he cries when he considers the carnage which is to come it's clear the emotion is genuine. The play continues and the English and French troops begin to rush towards each other to engage in battle when there is the sound of heavy bombardment close by and they come to a halt. The action continues from the end of the battle and we see Henry and Katherine (played by the nurse) betrothed. The kiss they share is clearly not as king and royal princess.
Then comes the end, with the King of France declaring Henry and Katherine's heir will inherit the kingdom of France, this bringing the two kingdoms together in peace. But of course the play doesn't end there, but with the chorus relating the disaster of Henry VI's reign. At which point a telegram arrives, and the soldiers, who are well on the road to recovery, are ordered back to the frontline.
It would be hard to imagine a production more different from the RSC Henry V, and yet both were extremely good. This one for the concept, the location and the emotion will remain with me for some time.
I had assumed the performance would be in the main part of the cathedral (the nave), but in fact it was in the choir (technically quire). For those unfamiliar with cathedral layouts - Gloucester choir has three rows of pews on either side of a narrowish space. Picture taken by Freddie Stewart (Henry V). The stained glass at the end was erected in 1350, 65 years before Agincourt. The audience sat in the pews - we had paid extra for front pew spaces - and the play took part in the space between the pews. A very intimate setting.
The action opens with wounded French and English soldiers in 1915 being evacuated to a field hospital near Azincourt. In order to raise their spirits they, together with two nurses, put on a performance of Henry V. The actors wear their 1915 uniforms all the time, occasionally changing coats depending on which side they are supposed to be portraying. The props are very limited - the bishops wear cardboard mitres, the kings cardboard crowns and the tennis balls are rolled bandages. But it all makes sense, because this is not Henry V being staged as a WWI production, but WWI wounded soldiers staging a 1415 production.
The start of the play is very clearly mirroring the departure of the troops for France in 1914, and the triumphal attack on Harfleur showed the initial enthusiasm for the war. And so the play continued until the point at which Bardolph is to be executed. The soldier who was playing Bardolph was suffering with shell shock and at the threat of being shot he started to shake and ended up lying on the floor needing medical attention. At which point the lights went out for the interval.
And then, having heightened the emotions, they played Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow during the interval. Butterworth was killed at the Somme in 1916. The whole performance was interspersed with a number of songs, based on poems from AE Houseman's A Shropshire Lad. Most of the poems had new settings, but they kept Butterworth's setting of The Lads in their Hundreds.
The second act begins with a much heightened awareness of the effect of the war on these men. So when we reach the part where Henry is walking amongst his troops pre-Agincourt and he cries when he considers the carnage which is to come it's clear the emotion is genuine. The play continues and the English and French troops begin to rush towards each other to engage in battle when there is the sound of heavy bombardment close by and they come to a halt. The action continues from the end of the battle and we see Henry and Katherine (played by the nurse) betrothed. The kiss they share is clearly not as king and royal princess.
Then comes the end, with the King of France declaring Henry and Katherine's heir will inherit the kingdom of France, this bringing the two kingdoms together in peace. But of course the play doesn't end there, but with the chorus relating the disaster of Henry VI's reign. At which point a telegram arrives, and the soldiers, who are well on the road to recovery, are ordered back to the frontline.
It would be hard to imagine a production more different from the RSC Henry V, and yet both were extremely good. This one for the concept, the location and the emotion will remain with me for some time.
