Globe’s latest production of the Shakespeare play is set to show audiences the ‘devastating cost’ of the king’s ‘bombastic pursuit of power’
Henry V was a power-hungry imperialist rather than an English hero, the Globe’s latest production of the William Shakespeare play will suggest.Rather than lauding a “band of brothers” defeating the French against the odds at Agincourt, the new staging will show audiences the “devastating cost” of Henry’s “bombastic pursuit of power”.The production will run during the theatre’s winter season and promises to “question what it really means to be English”, according to the Globe.It will be directed by Holly Race Roughan, who has said that she found the play to be “the pinnacle of English mythologising, and white supremacy, and toxic masculinity”.
Speaking to The Stage about her vision for the new production, she said: “I felt like I’d discovered the dirty, murky roots of English nationalism.
“I wanted to pull the play out of the ground and look at those roots and start asking questions about them. What is Englishness? What social and political purpose does it serve?”
The play is Shakespeare’s rendering of the story of the 15th-century warrior king Henry V who sought to reclaim lands in France through a military expedition which culminated with the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.