Saturday Night With Shakespeare

Hmmm… Shakespeare wore an earring!

Celebrated as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's most illustrious playwright, William Shakespeare is referred to as the Bard of Avon. He is best known for his dramatic works, written primarily between 1590 and 1613. As an English major in college, I read several of his plays… all the usual candidates… Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar, King Lear among several others.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer having written 37 plays, 154 sonnets as well as three narrative poems. Most folks are familiar with his comedies and tragedies, but the history plays are less well known.

I’d never seen nor read Henry V, so when I saw an ad for a free ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ performance by the Henry V Shakespeare Company, I marked it on our calendar—nothing like a Shakespearean play for a hot date night. David was a bit less enthusiastic than I, but he was still game. It’s appropriate that we should see one of the Bard’s plays during his birth month. Interestingly, he was born on April 23, 1564, and died on his birthday, April 23, 1616.

Henry V won the Battle Agincourt big time!

As part of the Nevada Shakespeare Festival, the production of Henry V, also known as the Life of the Henry the Fifth, is probably the most famous of Shakespeare’s 10 history plays. According to the description of the play, “the plot is straightforward: King Henry V of England, after being insulted by the French Dauphin, wages war across France to claim the French throne, culminating in the Battle of Agincourt. Throughout, we are given themes such as duty to your nation, social class structure, and the role of a leader to his people.”

British history (and Wikipedia) tells us that “Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years’ War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. Henry is known and celebrated as one of the greatest warrior-kings of medieval England. 

We brought chairs to the pleasant venue at the Silver Springs Park Amphitheatre in Henderson and parked ourselves right in the front row. It’s a small outdoor venue and by ‘curtain time’ (there really is no curtain), about 100 folks had gathered in lawn chairs and on blankets to watch the play.

Instead of a long, nearly 3-hour play, the director pared the performance down to 80-minutes. Six actors played all the roles, quickly changing costume, mask or headgear as well as personality as they assumed their different roles. The audience was asked by the ‘chorus’ (the narrator) to use their imaginations for changes in venues since there were no set changes, just the bare stage.

Henry V Shakespeare Company is part of Nevada’s Shakespeare in the park productions. Six actors did it all!

Though the production was definitely ‘bare-bones’, it was fascinating to watch and easy to follow. There were battle scenes, encouraging speeches (not unlike ones we might hear today), some comic moments, and even a bit of wooing as Henry pursues the French princess, Catherine, to be his wife.

The evening was perfect, though breezy. By the end of 80 minutes, we were chilled through and through, and though we enjoyed the presentation, getting back to the warmth of Blanche was definitely on our minds.

The key question… would we go again? Yup, we would! Surprisingly (remember, he is an engineer!), David enjoyed the play. We’ll be watching for opportunities to see more Shakespeare in the Park near us in the future.