տուն Uncategorized New production of Henry V proves you CAN do Shakespeare in a...

New production of Henry V proves you CAN do Shakespeare in a T-shirt

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Michael Grandage’s production of Henry V, with Jude Law — stirring and with a noble lustre in his eyes — mixes a traditional Shakespearean look with a hint of bang-up-to-date Portobello Road.

Grandage cast Ashley Zhangazha as Chorus and wanted him to be able to connect the play about Henry at Agincourt to both the traditional and younger theatre audiences drawn in by the director’s season at the Noel Coward theatre.

‘Ashley’s a very good framing device within the play, and as a link to the audience,’ Grandage told me during a preview on Tuesday.

While his fellow cast members were in costumes that melded with the period, Zhangazha, who won this year’s Ian Charleson Award (for an outstanding performance in a classical role by an actor under 30), wore a T-shirt with a funky Union Jack on the front, part of a job lot purchased on Portobello Road.

The inaugural Grandage season began with Privates On Parade last December and has included Peter And Alice, The Cripple Of Inishmaan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It wraps with Henry V. More than 100,000 tickets have been available, at £10 each, for the shows.

Grandage and executive producer James Bierman wondered when Henry V was last staged in the commercial West End (so excluding the National Theatre, the Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company shows at the Barbican).

Alan Howard starred in an RSC version at the Aldwych, staged by Terry Hands, in 1978. But in those days the Aldwych was very much the RSC’s London base, so strictly speaking that doesn’t count either.

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