Imaginate
Henry the Fifth
Traverse, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
FOUR STARS
It's Shakespeare, but not as we usually see it on stage. It's history, but again, it's an enlivening remove from the lists of dates and dead rulers that mark the centuries but mask the drama within the facts.
Enter Unicorn Theatre, opening the Imaginate festival with a version of Henry the Fifth that references Shakespeare even as it bounces his hero out of armour-clad politickings and into the hoodie of a teenager with a head as empty as the royal coffers. This Henry (Alex Austin) has already been seen cheating at bowls, because he always has to win. Put a crown on his head, and that immature "I'm the king of the castle" swaggering soon morphs into a single-minded determination to be king of another, richer castle - in France.
Here's where director Ellen McDougall and designer James Button cunningly fashion an hour-long caper that engages the imagination (and sense of humour) of an 8+ audience while layering in the kind of tricky issues that invite serious thought whatever your age. That castle in France is, in fact, made of sand. Wielding the busy bucket and spade is feisty Princess Katherine (Tanya Lattul) who is mightily disgruntled when her crown - and hand in marriage - are hotly claimed by both Henry and a creepy distant cousin (John Biddle in wily scoundrel mode). War is inevitable, played out like a biff! bang! wallop! boys' game with armies of balloons mowed down into sad little rags on string. The real power throughout, however, has been with the wearer of the tail/tale coat: Narrator (Offue Okegbe), like Shakespeare, mixes truth and fiction to tell the story they want us to hear. That's history for you, folks!
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