'Henry V' is spare but richly told

January 17, 2008|Stage Review, Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE - As it matures, the Actors' Shakespeare Project is revealing a persistent knack for setting itself tricky challenges and then, usually, meeting them. The latest: staging "Henry V," with its vast battles and its epic sweep from England to France and back, in a cramped basement - with just five actors.

It works. And how.

Well, how? That is the interesting question. Partly it works because Shakespeare knew that no stage could ever hold all the scenes he conjures here, and so he repeatedly uses the character of the Chorus to remind us that we are watching a play, that the world is far bigger than this wooden platform, and that the actors must therefore implore the audience to "piece out our imperfections with your thoughts." And so we do - and, paradoxically, the less a production of "Henry V" gives us to look at onstage, the more we see in our mind's eye.

Director Normi Noel, who has experienced the power of visually spare but linguistically rich stagings at Shakespeare & Company, clearly shares the ASP's belief in deep simplicity (a belief that may owe something to the size of the company's budget). She keeps the five actors moving and talking with vigor and without fuss; they shift among wildly different characters not by exaggerated changes of mannerism, voice, or costume, but by giving each one a full, clear, and unimpeded voice. Noel knows what more directors should: If you just stay out of Shakespeare's way, he does most of the work himself.

That's not to say the actors here don't have to work hard. Just take visiting artist Seth Powers, who must shift in a wink from regal Henry to roguish Bardolph, or company member Paula Langton, who's both a heartbreaking Mistress Quickly and a heart-stirring Fluellen. (And that's only counting their major roles.) But their work, like Noel's, focuses on thinking through every aspect of the performance, from the simple logistics of quick changes to the more profound questions of character and tone, rather than on showy delivery or grand gestures. No one here has time to overdo anything, and that pressure gives all the acting a clean, athletic grace.