The PCPA Theaterfest will offer a new production of Shakespeare’s “Henry V” Feb. 15-March 3 in the Marian Theater, 870 S. Bradley Road, Santa Maria.
The show is directed by Mark Booher, with costumes by Klara Wilson, lighting by Cody Soper, sets by Kevin Dudley, sound by Tony Angelini, original music by Michael Wilkins, and stage management by Rebekah Carriere.
The cast will include associate artistic director, Emily Trask, as King Henry, with Andrew Philpot, Erik Stein, Don Stewart, Peter Hadres, Michael Tremblay, George Walker, Molly Dobbs, Kitty Balay, and Alexander Pimentel.
PCPA has provided the following background information:
“Attempting to leave behind his rowdy and unpredictable past, Henry lays claim to certain parts of France through familial roots and ancient land laws.
“When his claim and the new reign are insulted by the Dauphin of France, Henry begins a war that whisks us from England to France.
“This is William Shakespeare at the height of his poetically expressive and rhetorically persuasive powers. King Henry, concerned about the stability of the Crown, used the support of the church and ancient inheritance technicalities to validate English claims on French territories. His past immaturity and recklessness are thrown in his face by the prince of France, and this creates the pretext of an offense that Henry decides to carry into war.
“As Henry undertakes this, and navigates betrayals and failures among those around him, he ‘inwardly ruminates’ the meaning of the ceremonial facades of kingship and the price of the courage to see it through.
“The play famously valorizes the nobility of warfare, while it also critically dissects the virtues and violence of war. We cannot leave the play without being inspired by the vigor and integrity of Henry’s quest, or without a deep sense of the waste and fatuousness of war and territorial acquisition.
“Henry, as presented in this ‘history,’ was both deeply noble and deeply flawed. He sought to save his nation and redeem his own sense of noble purpose, and the costs were terrible and the successes, sadly, short-lived.
“The play is also a kind of living treatise to the art of playmaking itself, and particularly the collaborative creative force through which player and audience co-create the story. So, Shakespeare isn’t only telling a famous story of a famous king, he is playing with and celebrating the art form of theatre itself.”
Director Mark Booher adds: “This production is going to be both intimate and epic in its scale. … The Marian Theater transforms into an engaging stage that surrounds you, making the experience truly unforgettable.”
On Saint Crispin’s Day (Oct. 25), 1415 — somewhat more than half way through the conflict between England and France known as the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) — the English army (about 1,500 men-at-arms and 7,000 longbowmen) fought a battle near the town of Agincourt, against heavily armed and mounted French forces numbering at least 15000, and perhaps as many as 25000.
King Henry V commanded the English forces in the battle; Constable Charles d’Albret had overall command of the French.
It was a total rout. The English lost 112-600 men; the French in excess of 6,000, including a significant percentage of the nobility of France.
It was one of the greatest victories England ever achieved in battle, regardless of the war, and it is the central event of Shakespeare’s play. Henry’s speech to his troops before the battle is perhaps the most stirring ever penned.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
“For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
“Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
“This day shall gentle his condition:
“And gentlemen in England now a-bed
“Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
“And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
“That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
Nevertheless, notwithstanding the scale of England’s triumph at Agincourt — not to mention the almost as stunning earlier victories in the same conflict at Crécy (Aug. 26, 1346) and Poitiers (Sept. 19, 1356) — England lost the Hundred Years War, which served them right, since the war started when the English monarchs made weak and spurious claims to the French throne.
Almost immediately, England plunged into the the bloody dynastic civil upheaval known as The Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), sorting out the rival claims of the House of York (white rose emblem) and the House of Lancaster (red rose).
The casualties, being all English, far outnumbered the French casualties at Agincourt — after the Battle of Towton alone, (March 29, 1461), the heralds counted nearly 10,000 dead.
Shakespeare deals extensively with this war in the three parts of “Henry VI” and in “Richard III.” Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England, was killed by Henry Tudor at the battle of Bosworth Field (Aug. 22, 1485), bringing the “Roses” to an end.
Henry Tudor became Henry VII (since the Tudors, a Welsh line, were laterally related to the House of Lancaster, we can say that Lancaster won the Wars of the Roses, though there were almost none of them alive to celebrate).
One of Henry VII’s granddaughters, Elizabeth, became Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, accounting for some of Shakespeare’s bias toward the Lancasters and Tudor in his plays, especially his vilification of Richard III.
Tickets to “Henry V” start at $25, and they can be purchased by phone at 805-922-8313, or online at www.boxoffice@pcpa.org.