Seeing “Henry V”

Due to the interventions of a redditor, I managed to see Henry V (aka one Shakespeare’s meddlesome “histories”) at the Irondale Ensemble Project, in Brooklyn, near BAM, this past Saturday night.  They specialize in ensemble theater, which has its pluses (a small variety of actors playing a wide variety of roles) and its minuses( a small variety of actors playing a wide variety of roles), in a large space that formerly belonged to a Sunday School.

While the stage was set up to be very intimate (I was in the 3rd row of 6 possible rows in a three quarters round), the actual setup took place in a much more cavernous room that took up about three floors.  While the lack of decor in a huge room makes the space seem gorgeous,  this turned out to be a problem, as the walls were made of either brick or stone, and the space ended up sucking up much of actors voices.  Since I was unfamiliar with this Shakespeare play (bad Shana), as well as the history behind Henry V (even more bad Shana), the loss of sound made the play harder to follow.  Note to those who go, you are there to concentrate on the show, not the way the actors sound, so sitting in the front row may be a plus.

As with much of Shakespeare, from what I caught of it, there was some brilliant lines and brilliant character developments.  The best monologue clearly went to the person playing Henry with his St. Crispin’s Day speech.  The actor playing it pulled off a rousing effort, though overall he was a middling actor, riding with his stage presence and voice rather than bringing the character to life.  There was one other actor, Gabriel King, who was a total standout as a character actor.  He mastered his Captain Fullen, and made the character expressive: he is exactly what one would think a humorously grizzled solider in a Shakespeare play would be like.  He also showed range with his other roles, such as the Bishop of Ely.  Meanwhile, he did his many roles without taking away from the other actors in scene.  If anything, he made them seem stronger.

Overall, I don’t have much bad to say about the staging. Or good.  it wasn’t cutting edge, but nor was it distracting.  It was there, and it worked to highlight the dramatic moments, the sad moments, the happy momements, and the humorous moments. It was classical shakespeare in its sparity.  Meanwhile the costuming was finely edited street clothes and white shirts, which suited the play fine.  Nothing spectacular, but also nothing distracting.

Would I recommend it – I’m not sure.  I think overall the ensemble was well assembled, if a tad small in number for the sheer amount of roles to follow.  I thought the space was a bigger issue, as well as my lack of background on the real Henry V and the play.  For a non-Shakespeare company, they did a more than fair job. Had they been a Shakespeare exclusive company, I think I would have passed.