Shakespeare’s Henry V, War As Performance

This timely play is about executive power and national politics. Crafting a nation’s history and identity means ignoring dodgy, inconvenient facts. In 1415, England’s king invades France once his self-interested advisers agree that he is its rightful ruler. He sends his “happy few, we band of brothers,” “unto the breach, dear friends” against the astonished French. Staging such a foreign conflict is like staging a play, the narrator tells us: you create credible illusions with appropriate speeches and images. Is player-king Harry a virtuous monarch, or an amiable monster intent on a trumped-up display of power? Is this popular play a patriotic tribute to a charismatic ruler, or a darkly subversive take on what gets called history? Please use Folger Shakespeare Library's paperback edition of Henry V (2020, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine). Videos of performances will be provided, including one made during WW II and one after Vietnam.