Henry the Fifth

Des McAnuff's last opportunity to direct a play by Shakespeare at the Stratford Festival was certain to be a block buster. Henry the Fifth provides the scope, with the hero king, the battles, the comedy and the love scenes. McAnuff took advantage of it all. The staging was tremendous, over sized and glorious. The cast was excellent, with Aaron Krohn in the lead, Tom Rooney as Pistol, Randy Hughson as Bardolph, Lucy Peacock as Pistol's wife, Gareth Potter as the Dauphin and Bethany Jillard as the Princess Catherine and Ben Carlson as Fluellen. The large cast was full of other great actors filling smaller roles. In spite of all of this, the production was good but not fabulous. I think McAnuff forgot about the words. The two big speeches are almost passed over. Some people felt that Aaron Krohn was not up to the role, but I think this was a failure by the Director, not the actor. This was particularly evident in the St Crispin's Day speech. Krohn was left alone on the stage, speaking to an almost invisible group of followers located on the floor at the foot of the stage. Instead of inspiring his men, he seemed to be talking to himself. This reduced the impact of the speech to the point where it was just another speech and not the most important speech in the play.