At any time, this production would look ill-considered and overblown, despite Harington’s impressive performance. Right now, it’s too much.
Read more
...Webster’s is the first production I’ve ever seen to approach ‘Henry V’ as a great character study...Probably, he slightly flatters the play. But at the end of the day he gets away with it, in a broodingly impressive production.
Read more
Every performance is polished but Harington absolutely stands out...It is puzzling and grating – one of too many bells and whistles in a production where less might have been much more.
Read more
Henry V is immensely mutable: it’s not only what it has to tell us, it’s what it has been made to say over the years that’s striking...Not an all-out triumph but a victory nonetheless.
Read more
For members of the Game of Thrones fan club, it’s also an opportunity to see what Kit Harington (alias Jon Snow) makes of the warrior role. Is he up to the challenge? The answer is a resounding yes.
Read more
What Max Webster's modern-dress production proves is how many ways Henry V can be interpreted, revealing Shakespeare's uncanny understanding of the brutalising effects of any war.
Read more
...Webster is more interested in using the play as a study in national identity. That’s as valid as any other approach, but what’s problematic is the sledgehammer tactic.
Read more
The show exemplifies how the meaning of a theatrical production can change radically. A day can make all the difference. Make no doubt: this Henry V is historic in more ways than one.
Read more