Having famously been filmed by Laurence Olivier as a Second World War morale-raiser, Henry V tends to be staged during conflicts: a celebrated modern-dress production by Nicholas Hytner, with Adrian Lester in the title role, had an Iraq War spin. So the challenge for Michael Grandage – having chosen the play as the fifth and final one of his first commercial West End season – is how to get a purchase on the work in a time of relative peace.Grandage’s typically clever solution is a production that turns on the big political issues of our time: the gap between reporting and reality, rhetoric and action, leaders and people. Jude Law, his chosen lead, is, at 40, rather more visibly aged than most Henries, which creates a useful sense that some of his tricks of persuasio
12 December 2013, The Tablet
Henry V
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