Below is the Crispin's Day speech of the 2012 production of Henry V at Shakespeare's Globe with Jamie Parker in the title role.
In contrast with the videos featuring Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hiddleston, this is not a TV adaptation but a taped theater performance, which gives a far better idea of the play experienced live. But I was a bit underwhelmed with the director's choice to accentuate the comical, not only in the "Hands" speech between the French princess and her maid (where the maid accentuates the English translations of French words in a way that is completely ridiculous and offputting), but even in Henry's speech at Harfleur, when he walks up to a member of the audience as if he was the soldier he is referring to in his speech. This got a lot of laughs, but it seemed to me that it doesn't support the purpose of the play, which is to describe the growth of a young king and the toil of war.
After all, Shakespeare has written plenty of comedies in his lifetime, and truly funny ones at that. It is safe to say he didn't imagine Henry V as a comedy. Parker also almost loses his voice at the end of this very famous speech, which stunned me - when is the last time you had a professional stage actor lose his voice on stage, especially during one of the most famous lines of the play? Yet, precisely because Shakespeare is known both for his tragedies and his comedies, and because this play ends well (if you forget the Chorus's warnings), after my first moment of surprise, I found myself going back to the director's interpretation of the play - and the way the laughs humanize King Henry in ways big, famous speeches cannot.
The sets and costumes look beautiful, and I was so disappointed at first when I heard about the GlobeOnScreen broadcast of the play in US cinemas, literally the day after the actual broadcast. In the end, it wouldn't have been a bad way to pass the time, but if regret becomes too strong, the recorded broadcast is available on DVD from the Globe's website.
Read my previous post on Shakespeare's Henry V here.
