Henry V111 at the Globe Theatre

 

It was appropriate that for my last Shakespeare play I went to the Globe Theatre. Henry V111 (or All Is True) is rarely performed (attributed to William Shakespeare and John  Fletcher) and is probably the weakest in the cannon. Hannah Khalil is the resident writer for the Globe Theatre and she was commissioned to edit the text, bring the female roles to the fore and add bits from other Shakespeare plays (I didn't hear any) to give the text some welly. Did it work? Well, probably to some degree. Director Amy Hodge has jazzed up this irreverent  production with an athletic Henry (Adam Gillen is very watchable, gliding around the stage). 

With an impressive Bea Segura as Katherine. I think she steals the show.

At one point she is joined by all the other wives with a musical accompaniment. Obviously not in the original play but here, quite dramatic.

There is then the playing around with the costumes. From the picture of Henry below, pairing robes with trainers?

Even Chamberlain is in a light purple satin but modern suit, but has a ruff. However Cardinal Wolsey is in traditional scarlet robes, that is until he divests himself later on. Jamie Ballard was superb in that role.

I liked the messing around with race and gender, there is Jonah Russell as Cardinal Campeius above. The programme told me that Debbie Korley below played Elizabeth and I now remember she came on towards the end to deliver a speech (not in the text of the play) as the Queen. In the original Elizabeth is only a baby.

So we had comedy and songs, Genevieve Dawson introduced proceedings with a strong voice and guitar.

A four piece band helped but was never intrusive. Unfortunately the theatre was disappointingly only one third full, maybe not even that. The huge cast in the original version had been pared down, successfully, to eleven players. 

They gave it their all. I had a great view from my front row bench in the middle gallery but I needed that cushion. The Royal Shakespeare Company announced in 2013 that they were going to perform every Shakespeare play. No sign yet of Henry V111 and after the terrible sales for The Globe, maybe that won't happen.

Lastly a note about the queue for the Lying in State of Queen Elizabeth 11 that went past The Globe Theatre. Walking across Millennium Bridge (having taken the Underground to Mansion House) I saw the people queuing rushing past. It was only at the interval that the queue was back to Tate Modern next door to the Globe. That was two and a half miles according to the map below, so not at all bad on Thursday. That would have been the day to go.