Broadway

Henry V

 (Delacorte Theater, New York; 2,000 seats; free)

By JEREMY GERARD

A New York Shakespeare Festival presentation of the play in five acts (one intermission) by Shakespeare. Directed by Douglas Hughes.
 
Cast: Andre Braugher (King Henry V), Danyon Davis (Gloucester), John Woodson (Exeter), Douglass Stewart (York), Michael C. Hall (Warwick), Jeff Weiss (Archbishop of Canterbury/Pistol), David Costabile (Bishop of Ely/Le Fer), Christian Camargo (Cambridge, etc.), Lance Reddick (Scroop, etc.), Gus Rogerson (Grey), Yusef Bulos (Erpingham, etc.), Michael Gaston (Gower), Kenneth L. Marks (Fluellen), Jerry Mayer (Nym), Jarlath Conroy (Bardolph), Kathleen Chalfant (Mistress Quickly/Queen Isabel), Torquil Campbell (Boy), George Morfogen (King of France), Teagle F. Bougere (Dauphin), Elizabeth Marvel (Katharine), Henry Stram (Montjoy); Louis J. Andrews, William Robert Doyle, Benim Foster, T.J. Kenneally, Adam Soham Larner, Michael Neeley, Kristine Nielsen, Daniel Oreskes, Daniel Pearce, Robert Ramirez, Mary Randle.
 

On a perfect summer evening, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and Shakespeare -- especially the Shakespeare of "The Taming of the Shrew" or "A Midsummer Night's Dream"-- seem a magical union. The history plays are another matter. On one hand, they require a level of concentration that can be thwarted by aircraft overhead; on the other, many a director and designer have exploited the surroundings, especially Belvedere Castle high on a promontory overlooking the amphitheater, for dramatic effect.

These nights, the castle sports a flag with the fleur-de-lis. "Henry V" marks the 31st production in the complete Shakespeare cycle initiated in 1987 by the festival's late founder and producer, Joseph Papp. In the title role of Douglas Hughes' intelligent and clear production is Andre Braugher, star of NBC's "Homicide" and no legit dilettante; this is his eighth New York Shakespeare Festival performance and it's also his most assured.

The audience faces a royal blue wall adorned with bright gold stars and a golden sun. Eventually the walls part and the cast marches in, each member reciting a line of the Chorus' preface to the play. They're outfitted in contemporary garb, some of it boldly colorful; but later, in the battle scenes, the fashion is decidedly 15th century. Braugher's Henry -- black suit, black tie , red pocket square for a slash of color and a look of stolid consternation through most of the first act -- needs to be convinced that France is worth taking over.

Jeff Weiss's Archbishop of Canterbury is just the one to do it. The archbishop reels off the history of British-French relations and essentially bribes the king into declaring war, offering a major-league church-sponsored war chest to underwrite the action. An actor whose subversive wit permeates everything he does, Weiss turns the archbishop's history lesson into a kind of rapid-fire "Jeopardy!" sequence, posing answers and then tossing off the explanations, as doubting Henry looks on.

Weiss doubles brilliantly as Pistol, Henry's mate from his long-since renounced days as youthful roustabout. The presence of Pistol, Bardolph (Jarlath Conroy) and Nym (Jerry Mayer) reminds the king uncomfortably of the past he has forsworn, and he deals with them quite ruthlessly, as he did Sir John Falstaff in the final scenes of "Henry IV, Part II."

Braugher plays too much of the first half of "Henry V" on the same single note. But he has a commanding stage presence, and his Henry is visibly and movingly transformed on the battlefield at Agincourt by the French king's herald , Montjoy (the superb Henry Stram). The announcement of French readiness to squash the British goads Henry into the reinvigoration that will lead to the rousing St. Crispin's Day speech and Henry's subsequent unlikely victory.

Hughes underscores Henry's ambivalence about the whole operation by highlighting the king's order to kill the French POWs, flouting rules of war and shocking his own troops. Once you start examining motivations too carefully, however, the whole premise of the play -- annexing another country on a hazy pretext of blood lineage -- raises issues of considerable resonance in this century.

The St. Crispin speech is memorized by countless schoolchildren as the ultimate paean to personal sacrifice for the larger good, but it's worth remembering that Henry addresses it to his high command -- his pals in the nobility -- and that the bottom line is Plantagenet hegemony. The stakes for everyone were considerably lower when Henry was just Prince Hal, misbehaving with Falstaff & company, holding up an occasional coach and generally thumbing his nose at the global blood sport his royal family stood for.

Braugher and Weiss aren't the only ones giving assured performances. There is also fine work from Kenneth L. Marks as the talkative, loyal Welshman Fluellen; Elizabeth Marvel, a delight as the play's comic relief, the French princess Katharine; Mayer and Conroy as the buffoons Nym and Bardolph, respectively; and George Morfogen, playing the French king as ultimate political pragmatist even when the issue is the fates of his son and daughter (the former to be disinherited, the latter to married off to Henry).

But Teagle F. Bougere is unbearable as that son, the Dauphin, and no match for his counterpart in Henry. John Woodson, in the pivotal role of Henry's overwrought uncle, the Duke of Exeter, is stolid, wanting for some irony.

Still, Hughes has molded a disparate group into a real ensemble. David Van Tieghem's accompanying music and effects underline but don't intrude, and the battle scenes are beautifully staged (Rick Sordelet is fight director) and outfitted (Paul Tazewell did the costumes).

This is a production with a common touch, one that throws Henry's transformation to a grown-up into high relief. But it's also naive, approaching the ambivalence about war that sends a constant shiver through the play, yet never really getting down and dirty about the issue. That may be asking too much on a perfect summer night in Central Park.

Set, Neil Patel; costumes, Paul Tazewell; lighting, Brian MacDevitt; music, sound effects, David Van Tieghem; sound, Tom Morse; fights, Rick Sordelet; dramaturg, John Dias; production stage manager, Buzz Cohen; associate producer, Wiley Hausam; artistic associate, Kevin Kline; press, Carol R. Fineman; casting, Jordan Thaler/Heidi Griffiths; production manager, Bonnie Metzgar. Producer, George C. Wolfe; artistic producer , Rosemarie Tichler; executive producer, Joey Parnes; executive director, Laurie Beckelman. Opened June 30, 1996. Reviewed June 28. Running time: 3 hours, 10 min.