REVIEW: Henry V by William Shakespeare at Seattle Shakespeare Company. Directed by Russ Banham. With Evan Whitfield, Alexandra Tavares, Jerick Hoffer, Russell Hodgkinson and Stephanie Shine. Now through May 9 at the Center House Theatre at Seattle Center.
I’m way behind on my reviewing and I’m several days late with this review so I’m going to make this relatively short and not very sweet. Seattle Shakespeare’s production of Henry V isn’t very good. They chose to set the production in 1962 but they never really follow through with that concept; other than some costuming, there isn’t much here to indicate the chosen time. Evan Whitfield is an attractive young actor and I’m guessing his King Henry is supposed to be Kennedyesque but there is no attempt made at the accent and his performance is bland and lackluster; he seems to be channeling John Kerry more than John Kennedy. Only in the ending scenes with Alexandra Tavares’s Princess Katherine does he show must spark. In fact, this production is just a mish-mash of contrasting styles and talents with strong performances by actors at ease with the language and other performances where you sorely wish for a visit by the Royal Shakespeare Company to swoop in and replace the wooden, clumsy tongued American actors and their unease with verse and Shakespearean acting. But, it’s not really fair to blame the actors when the direction of this play is so bland and lifeless. Important moments and scenes are thrown away (Henry’s big “Band of Brothers” speech; the revelation of the deaths of Bardolph and Nim, former cronies and allies of Henry when he was still the ribald Prince Hal;) and others are just listless and static. The play really only comes alive when one of the stronger actors are on stage…
And, those actors would be ones playing the “peasant” foot shoulders, the rowdy, lowlife, riff-raff rabble-rousing trio of Nym, Bardolph and Pistol as portrayed by Gordon Carpenter, Joseph McCarthy and Russell Hodgkinson. All three actors are fine, lively, in tune with the language and nuances of the play and confident in their performances. They are matched by Alexandra Tavares as the French princess Katherine, who is resigned to her fate as a political pawn/trophy princess-wife for whoever the French King wants to please. The part is almost entirely in French and is not a very large one, but Ms Tavares is confident and bold in her performance and you wish Shakespeare had made the part larger so we could spend more time with both the character and the actress who portrays her.
And, a big, big shout out to Jerick Hoffer and his gender-bending performances as Mistress Quickly, the tarty companion to Pistol and company, as well as his gender-twisted role of “Alice” the companion to Princess Katherine who saucily gives fractured English lessons to a princess who will probably soon become the property of the English Crown. Mr Hoffer is a young actor, soon to graduate from Cornish College of the Arts and I predict a successful career in his future. His Mistress Quickly was so convincing, I wasn’t aware that a man was playing the role until the curtain call. And his Alice, while played as a bitchy, male companion was undeniably a male character, had a commanding presence and Mr Hoffer was an equal partner in his scenes with Henry and Katherine. His ability to channel both a tarty English whore and a queeny, French speaking servant is only testament to his abilities. Here’s hoping he hangs around the Seattle theater scene following his graduation.
Before I wrap this up, I have to give out a couple more shout-outs of the sour variety. Tim Hyland is a charismatic actor and I thought his acting was fine as the Welshman Fluellen, but why was he the only accented actor in a show where every other British character had American accents? And why include Fluellen’s Welsh accent and drop the Irish and Scottish accents of two other minor characters? Shakespeare put those characters in there for a reason… To make matters worse, Mr Hyland’s accent was not convincing or accurate; it hovered vaguely and inconsistently around Scottish, Southern and Minnesotan. And, if anyone wishes to argue that I’m no authority on accents, my theater companion for the evening lived in the UK for 30+ years and went to Oxford and concurred with my opinion…We also agreed on our assessment of Stephanie Shine and her performance as the Chorus. It was arch, overly inflected, ham-handed and best suited for a Shakespearean performance geared toward short-bussed third-graders. It made our teeth ache. She seems like a nice lady, and she is the artistic director of Seattle Shakespeare and, she is pregnant, so I feel a bit mean about panning her, but someone had to tell her…
They also announced the next season at Seattle Shakespeare and I was pleased to hear they are doing Hamlet next year, but I’m hoping for a different approach to that show than the one they gave poor ole King Henry…and please, no more odd time settings or quirky takes on the material unless you have a strong vision and can follow through with it…I have no interest in seeing a Jetson’s inspired Hamlet.
Henry V runs Thur-Sat at 7:30pm and Sat/Sun at 2pm now through May 9. Photo Credit: John Ulman/Seattle Shakespeare
-Michael Strangeways
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
