HENRY V – REVIEW OF 2026 ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PRODUCTION IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

Reviewed by James Karas

The redoubtable Royal Shakespeare Company has staged Henry V at the Festival Theatre in Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. It is directed by Tamara Harvey with Set and Costume Designs by Lucy Osborne.

Henry V is a patriotic, one may say jingoistic play about a warrior king who wants to be king of England and of France because he is legally entitled to be. Read the play for the legal argument. If you know nothing about King Henry V, be informed that he is the one who beat the bejesus out of the French at the Battle of Agincourt. Now you know who we are talking about.

Director Harvey opens the play using a part of the last scene of Henry IV. Part 2.  Forget the Chorus’s invocation in Henry V “for a muse of fire” and watch King Henry IV on his deathbed being reconciled with his son in a moving exchange about royal duties and responsibilities.

Henry V has a huge cast and a busload of extras. Actors are assigned to double and triple roles with little attention to the gender of the character. But the plot is simple. Henry wants to conquer France; he is successful and proposes marriage to the lovely Princess Katherine in a wonderful scene, much of it in French and the crown of England and France are joined under a happy King.

Alfred Enoch aS Henry V and Natalie Kimmerling as Katherine. 

Photo: Johan Persson

The star is Henry himself, played with energy by Alfred Enoch. I found Enoch’s Henry energetic but somewhat lacking in flair. He is a great warrior but his famous St. Crispin’s speech lacked the spontaneity and crowd-arousing fervour that it demands. I expect rhetorical extravagance in the speech that it did not reach.

The same applies to the proposal scene where Henry asks Princess Katherine of France (Natalie Kimmerling) to marry him. He speaks no French and she, after a hilarious one lesson, knows no English. Again, I expected more flair and exuberance from the victorious king.

A few examples of casting will suffice. Catrin Aaron plays a sympathetic Hostess as well as Queen Isabel and the Governor of Harfleur. The Duke of Gloucester becomes the Duchess of Gloucester (Sophie McIntosh), Valentine Hanson plays Henry IV. Grey and Erpingham. Hanora Kamen plays the Bishop of Ely and Gower while Sam Parks becomes Westmoreland, Bates and Burgundy.

I give special credit to Henry’s drinking buddies while he was Prince of Wales. Bardolph (Emmanuel Olusanya), Nym (Ewan Wardrop) and Pistol (Paul Hunter). Ah, for the good old days of Henry as depicted in Henry IV.

The set must accommodate, without getting into detail, England, France and the Battle of Agincourt. There is a large scaffold for people to walk on. But the real wonder is the treatment of the battle scenes. They are choreographed by Movement Director Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster. The warriors collapse on the stage, they move, they fight in a superb display of war-like activity and choreography.    

The production has supernumeraries galore and a huge cast and handling them must have been a chore. The program lists a Children’s and Young People’s Planning Manager (Billie Ikeda) and a Young Theatre Makers Developer (Paul Ainsworth). I am not sure what they did but I am prepared to applaud them for work and endurance with youngsters.

Tamara Harvey and the Royal Shakespeare Company have staged a grand production  with some glitches of a play that tests the limits of what can be done with a large cast on a huge canvas. One can knit-pick until the cows come home but Shakespeare being patriotic and paying tribute to the great Tudor warrior during the reign of the last of that line is worth a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Henry V by William Shakespeare continues at the Festival Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  https://www.rsc.org.uk/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto