Henry V

Henry IV is dead. An untested Prince Hal sits on the throne, having forsaken the taverns and raucous days of his youth. England, still reeling from years of rebellion and civil strife, has fallen into an uneasy peace. Determined to unite his troubled realm against a common enemy, the young Henry V musters his armies and sets forth across the water to conquer France for the crown. But as the English army burns its way through the French countryside, and the personal cost of battle becomes more and more dire, Henry must wrestle with the havoc he has caused and what it really means to be a king. 

Cast

Bedford/Boy	Rebecca Korn
Gloucester/Nym/Orleans	Charlie Green
Exeter/Bates/French Soldier	Paul Davis
Dauphin/Bishop of Winchester/Governor of Harfleur	Sarah Pfanz
Montjoy/Queen Isabel/Messenger 1	Jaki Demarest
Fluellen/Grey/Burgundy/Messenger 2	Sean Eustis
Constable of France/Cambridge/Williams/Messenger 3	Boneza Hanchock
Chorus/Hostess/Erpingham/Messenger 5	Lisa Hill-Corley
Ely/Bardolph/Rambures	John Wallis
Canterbury/King of France/Court	Joshua Engel
Henry V	Allison McAlister
Katharine/Westmoreland/Messenger 6	Leanne Stump
Pistol/Salisbury/Messenger 4	Diana Dzikiewicz
Alice/Scroop/Gower	Liana Olear

Crew

Director	Rebecca Speas
Stage Manager	Trevor Jones
Sound Design	Eric Honour
Lighting Design	Irene Sitoski
Costumes	Sarah Richardson
Lighting Operator	Samuel Kopel

Media and Press

Review: Henry V at The Rude Mechanicals

by Amanda N. Gunther

Review: ‘Henry V’ at The Rude Mechanicals

by Vanessa Berben

Once More into the Breach!

by Jim Link, Greenbelt News Review

Characters

CHORUS (Any age): Ageless, timeless, a storyteller who can move through the story at will, bringing the audience with them along the way.

ENGLISH

HENRY V (20s-30s): The young king of England, who has inherited a volatile political situation and a kingdom on the edge of ruin. Having only recently put aside his libertine days in the taverns of Eastcheap, Henry still carries with him the arrogance of youth, but he is now weighed down by his new kingly responsibilities, the presence of God, and the shadows of his father’s complex legacy.

EXETER (40s-50s): King Henry’s uncle. A pro-active, no-nonsense warrior utterly dedicated to the crown. A trusted advisor and a fearsome general, he has Henry’s back in the court and on the battlefield, and represents Henry’s interests in wartime parleys.

BEDFORD & GLOUCESTER (20s-30s): Younger brothers to the King. Loyal to the Crown, but wary of their former wastrel brother. They had written Henry off long ago during his libertine days in Eastcheap; this new, virtuous version of him is unknown and therefore dangerous.

WESTMORELAND (30s-40s): Cousin to the King. A hard-nosed bull of a statesman and soldier, he is the muscle in the King’s council of advisors. He neutralizes threats, and is less than merciful.

FLUELLEN (Any age): A Welsh captain of the King’s Army. Chatty, opinionated, and good-natured, except when faced with inefficiency and insubordination – then, ne’er-do- wells beware.

FRENCH

KING OF FRANCE (50s-60s): The ailing French monarch who is desperately trying to maintain his royal power, while suffering from court infighting, the oncoming English armies, and his own descent into insanity. Proud yet cautious.

DAUPHIN (20s): The eldest son of the French King, and heir presumptive to the French throne, although that line of succession is looking more and more tenuous every day. Proud and bombastic, he senses his father and his court’s innate disapproval of him, leading him to try and gain their respect through bravado.

KATHARINE (20s): The youngest daughter of the French King, Katharine is offered to Henry V in marriage as part of the negotiations. Lively, clever, resourceful, and determined to survive.

ALICE (40s-60s): Katharine’s nurse. Kindly and warm, but also worldly and wise. She begins to teach Katharine English at her request, and approaches the world with a twinkle in the eye and a spine of steel.

CONSTABLE (40s-50s): The leader of the French Army, and responsible for the security of the French Crown. Confident in French military prowess, but also realistic about its limitations, the Constable has no patience for self-aggrandizement (or the Dauphin.)

MONTJOY (Any age): The French herald and ambassador. A dyed-in- the-wool diplomat, he acts as the official mouthpiece of the French crown abroad. He keeps his own beliefs and emotions close to the chest, but he is observant, fair, and honest with his opinions.

TAVERN

PISTOL (30s-50s): A flamboyant, cantankerous braggart who longs for glory, acclaim, and riches, but has absolutely no desire to put in the work or put himself in danger to attain them. Underneath the bluster, though, he genuinely loves his new wife, Mistress Quickly.

BARDOLPH (20s-30s): An old friend of Henry’s when he ran with Falstaff and the Eastcheap tavern crew. Opportunistic, a heavy drinker, and an unapologetic thief, Bardolph turns to unlawful behavior to make his way in the world, and ultimately pays the price for it.

NYM (30s-40s): A laconic army corporal who has fallen in with the tavern crew. Tight-lipped and quick to take offense, Nym has a very bleak, pessimistic view of the world and his place in it.

BOY (Young; teens-20s): Former page to John Falstaff, the Boy is an optimistic and hopeful youth who has fallen in by necessity with some not-so- good men. He is inquisitive and bright, and he takes the opportunity while in France to learn more of the world he lives in. He has a strong moral core, and the less-than- legal actions of his comrades makes him deeply uncomfortable.

HOSTESS (40s-60s): Mistress Quickly, proprietress of the Eastcheap tavern that hosted the merry revelry of Falstaff, Hal, and the tavern crew in simpler days. Now fallen on hard times, the Hostess still remains true to her friends and family – she marries Pistol for love, she sends her men off to war, and she nurses Falstaff through his final illness and into death. She is kindly, but tough, flighty, but capable of grounding, and she is the one who has to stay behind and make the best of things.