Henry V

Focusing on stage directions, implied stage action in the dialogue, and on production choices available at key moments, this Handbook treats the script like a rehearsal in progress and encourages the imagining of a physical narrative where the play's meanings and our responses are shaped by staged actions. Under cover of being a rousing adventure story, Shakespeare's Henry V manages to become something much more open and complex - a play whose possible meanings point in many directions, often all at once. In this Handbook, chapters on critical assessment and performance history take the reader in some of those many directions - from unproblematic reflection of an Elizabethan World Picture to cultural materialist reappraisal of how power works, and from Olivier's brilliant technicolor pageant to the National Theatre's 2003 reengagement with the play at the start of the Iraq war. Focusing on stage directions, implied action in the dialogue, and various production choices available at key moments, a theatrically aware commentary encourages the imagining of a physical narrative where the play's meanings and our responses are shaped by the constantly shifting stage action. Multiple, competing voices and often daring structural choices make Henry V an invigorating occasion for theatre. With a fresh and engaging style, this Handbook explores all the spiky, disruptive and debatable aspects of a tale Shakespeare could have told in a simple, straightforward and heroic fashion, but chose not to. Focusing on stage directions, implied stage action in the dialogue, and on production choices available at key moments, this Handbook treats the script like a rehearsal in progress and encourages the imagining of a physical narrative where the play's meanings and our responses are shaped by staged actions.