"HENRY 5," The Hypocrites at The Storefront Theater
BY LUCIA MAURO
By re-shaping the illustrious title of Shakespeare’s high-powered history play, "King Henry V," to the less adorned "Henry 5," director Sean Graney has obviously resisted Elizabethan pomp. The rising auteur-like artistic director of The Hypocrites – whose consciously streamlined staging is running at the equally stripped-down Storefront Theater – continues to remove the centuries-old varnish of weighty theatrics from classic plays.
However, a head-scratching conundrum accompanies Graney’s straightforward-intentioned but emotionally devoid production of "Henry 5" – a work that has sparked copious amounts of controversy over the titular leader’s motivations. Was he benevolent or ego-driven; a crazed warmonger or peace-seeker through violence? Plus, Shakespeare’s play cautiously toggles the political tightrope – leaning in favor of the English during their war against France, yet revealing some of the pitfalls of the former Prince Hal’s quest to become a good and fair king and man.
Spurred on by Louis the Dauphin’s sarcastic gift of tennis balls, Henry V forges ahead full-blast into battle – ultimately victorious on the blood-soaked fields of Agincourt and winner of the French princess, Katherine. Throughout the drama, one experiences the king’s brutality (as in his swift execution of prisoners of war) and leniency (his fair wager in disguise against a soldier who criticizes the ruler). His courtship scene in French and English of the sprightly princess ranks as one of the most gently touching in the entire Shakespearean canon.
But Graney, who has set out to return "Henry 5" to its pre-Naturalism context, leaves us with a monochromatic portrait of a man consumed by his motley emotional hues. I understand the director’s desire to eradicate any false emotion layered over the words. But the actors need not eliminate emotional shadings altogether. Here there’s so little variance in the delivery, it’s impossible to determine the slightest hint of a dramatic arc.
I felt like the actors, with a few exceptions, were delivering their lines as one extended pumped-up shout entirely free of punctuation. And punctuation, many a classics expert will argue, is the key to understanding and unraveling Shakespeare’s multifaceted characters. Here the lines and their inherently revelatory rhythms get mercilessly trampled or, more accurately, erased.
Graney has proven himself to be a visionary director, who excels at drawing out a crushing collective malaise from the absurdity of life ("Rhinoceros," "Marat/Sade" and "Blood Wedding" come to mind). But he only partially puts his unpretentious, meta-theatrical imprint on "Henry 5." His characters – including the misguided clown Pistol – become less real as they scream their way through this flattened-out oratorio. Set in its proper time period – with Sarah Pace’s deliberately makeshift costumes that look like they’ve been pulled out of a long-traveling trunk for itinerant players – the production also includes gratuitous modern touches.
For instance, the soldiers take swigs of water from pointed, paper water-cooler cups, which they crumple and toss on the ground. While the cleverness evokes a laugh, and may liken Henry’s battlefield to modern-day office politics, the quirky update wears thin. The same is true of a scene change involving three guys plopping down on a sofa and drinking beer (could that have been a sardonic wink at JoAnne Akalaitis’ infamous Diet Coke scene in "Mary Stuart" at Court Theatre?)
These unexpected anachronistic touches (including scratchy heraldic recordings played between scenes), while vintage Graney, lack consistency. So, as it stands, they appear to be thrown in according to the director’s whim – and that includes a common clowning trick of playing with scale (a short Bishop of Ely and tall Archbishop of Canterbury). Graney’s found-object set design (including shower curtains, multicolored shreds of material and green-painted wood), however, captures the spontaneous traveling-player idea well.
Now onto the French. While even Shakespeare had bristling ways of mocking the French in "Henry 5," Graney goes to ridiculous extremes. Most of the scenes involving the Gallic king and the Dauphin come across as "Monty Python" meets Inspector Clouseu (the French characters speak in the most nasally of "Does your dog bite?" inflections). Hence, the French become the brunt of every cliched joke. Only David Baca’s visibly pained French herald, Mountjoy (despite the measured pointing of his toes), elicits a believably altered inward journey.
John Byrnes makes a confident "Henry 5," but his one-note booming delivery fails to navigate the king’s internally battling demons and moral quandaries. Sean Sinitski is perhaps one of the most solidly grounded Uncle Exeters I’ve witnessed, but he has entirely stomped out his character’s vital and merciful grace beneath his warrior-like disposition.
Kurt Ehrmann carries the bulk of the show with his insightful yet playful portrayal of the every man/every era Chorus. Carolyn Klein delivers a heart-tuggingly truthful portrayal of Mistress Quickly. And the most fully realized scenes are those involving Stacy Stoltz as the innocent yet wise Katherine and Heidi Gottcent as her charmingly fussy attendant Alice.
Interestingly, some of the production’s most emotionally honest and comprehensible moments occur during the longer stretches of French dialogue. Most of the English passages go right through one’s head. It appears that the actors have found a brilliant inner light poking through the challenging confines of a foreign language – proving that heartfelt emotions, no matter how painstakingly molded, have the power to speak louder than words.ª
The Hypocrites’ production of "Henry 5" runs through September 28 at The Storefront Theater in the Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, 66 E. Randolph. Tickets: $12-$15. Call 312-742-TIXS or log onto www.the-hypocrites.com.
