Perth Voice Interactive

SHAKESPEARE’S St Crispin’s Day speech (Henry V) has been a rallying cry for battle down the ages, and was even used recently by rugby coach Walley Lewis to gee up his “troops” pre-game.

More than 400 years after it was penned it resonates with the turbulent brutality of conflict around the modern world, showing little has changed, director Damien Ryan says.

“This is a story of religious manipulation, loose justifications for preemptive conflict, betrayals of trust, the slaughter of prisoners, the possession of women as pawns of imperialism, and the final futility of the exploits of war.”

Ryan’s contemporary take is inspired by the true story of a group of English school boys during the Blitz in 1941.

Stuck in a bunker for 71 consecutive nights the boys rehearsed a new play each week, then performed for others in the shelter.

“We don’t know which Shakespeare plays they performed, but with England on the precipice and Churchill comparing the fighter pilots to the “happy few” at Agincourt, it is hard to imagine that a Henry V would not have struck their hearts,” Ryan says.

The bunker took a direct hit—with few survivors—so one can imagine the graphic scenes under Ryan’s direction as the bloody outcome of the Battle of Agincourt is played out amid German bombing.

The play is a celebration of courage, determination and the bullish underdog spirit, Ryan says, “but it’s also a horrifying indictment of our addiction to conflict and our susceptibility to propaganda and spin”.

WAPA graduate Damien Strouthos plays Pistol, one of the king’s drinking mates from his roistering younger days.

“We are a bunch of misfits and Henry was one of us. We were his best friends, we taught him about life,” Strouthos tells the Voice.

The play is set in a class room and, as the boys in 1941 would have done, whatever is at hand is used as props: “[Using] what they find…cricket bats and stumps as weapons,” Strouthos says. Togged out in football kit, Michael Sheasby plays Harry, while Eloise Winestock portrays Princess Katherine,  political pawn to her father the king of France and “sold” into marriage to the victorious Henry.

Henry V is a collaboration between the Perth Theatre Trust and Bell Shakespeare company and is on at the State Theatre for a very short season—July 23 to 26.

by JENNY D’ANGER