 | Henry V |  |
"You may as well say,
that 's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast
on the lip of a lion. " Act III, scene vii
Written: 1598
Compagnia Pippo Delbono ; February 2, 2007 Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Director : Pippo Delbono ; Starring :
Reviewed on : 2008-05-12 10:10:18 ; Reviewed by : Yumi Moriguchi
| The opening bell calls for attention. The theatre darkens. Striking sounds of sticks hitting the floor echo twice and thrice. The lights are on again – there sits a man, a large man with beard holding a beer bottle. Pippo Delbono cries out: “This is the story of Henry the Fifth”. Then he starts to dance, jump and bounce, as if he desperately tries to appeal to us for something, until suddenly – he crashes onto the stage.
This is William Shakespeare’s “Henry V”. Or perhaps this is a totally new drama simply based on this heroic epic. The one hour performance pursues simplicity for its plot – “I want France” says Henry V, thus responds the French King, warfare follows, and England’s “Battle is won”. Delbono attempts to describe this string of events through dance, nostalgic music, Delbono’s baritone voice through a loudspeaker, and silent movements of an inanimate crowd. Not to mention, it is more like a tendency that we are enchanted by Shakespeare dramas largely due to the power of “words, words, words”. However, this Italian director took a new approach – in Delbono’s “Henry V” there is motion more than words, but silence more than motion. The Japanese Noh*-like ‘motion in silence’ gave me goosebumps in earnest – please do imagine, the kind of scene where twenty or more expressionless humans coming out on the stage one by one without making any sound whatsoever. In fact, their roles are of great variety. Sometimes they are women who cry over the English soldiers making their way to the battlefield. Sometimes they are attendants to the French King. Sometimes they are the auditors of Henry’s “St. Crispin’s Day” speech, and sometimes, they are just a bunch of corpses. However, whatever role these people play in each scene, they act and look like as if they are simply part of the background artwork of the stage. They have no lines, they make no sound – but certainly they did have a strong presence throughout. I remember I felt a strange feeling that these people looked like living works of Michelangelo.
We can only imagine if Delbono knew the Japanese Noh or not; however, for me as an audience of this performance, the repetitive use of “silent signs” on stage (as mentioned in the programme notes) has definitely reminded me of the ancient beauty of the Noh theatre. What was more interesting is that this ‘silence’ has successfully highlighted the violent ‘motion’ in this performance – such as the strong speech by Delbono alias Henry V through the loudspeaker, or the tragic scream of the French King before his silent death. All in all, I got the impression that the exquisite beauty of Delbono’s “Henry V” was a result of the Japanese Noh-like ‘silence’ and the passionate Italian ‘motion’.
Quoting Prince Hamlet, “Words, words, words” is unmistakably one of the characteristics as well as charms of Shakespeare’s plays. However, Delbono has adventurously adapted this work by Shakespeare and as a result he has definitely succeeded to create the new interpretation of “Henry V” where ‘silence’ and ‘motion’ strangely but smoothly blend with each other. There is nostalgia with Surrealism; the thin and tall French King and the robust Henry V; the French Waltz and the sounds of warfare; lively soldiers and doll-like corpses – not only silence and motion but also many other aspects of antithesis constitute the beauty of this stage. It may be said that the two aspects that we usually think as opposites have found a place to unite, in Delbono’s “Henry V”.
Incidentally, the programme mentioned that this performance was scheduled to be 90 minutes but what I’ve seen was only slightly more than an hour. Whether intentional or unintentional, the ‘lost’ 30 minutes has also become a factor that has stimulated my imagination.
*Noh: a major form of classic Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. (Wikipedia)
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Reviews
|  | Compagnia Pippo Delbono
February 2, 2007 |  | Renaissance Films
1989 |  | BBC
1944 |  |
1859 |
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