Henry V - at The Globe

We went along to the Globe for my first ever performance there, and I dunno, perhaps it's because I'm a bit sick at the moment, but I honestly wasn't that impressed.  I'm not sure about this whole, let's recreate exactly the experience as it would have been in the 16th century.  Because you know what, you can't, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

For those who may not be aware, it's supposedly built on the site of the original Globe theatre, and it's done in the traditional fashion, as it would have been in Shakespeare's day.  So there's no roof and the cheap "seats" are the ones where people stand in front of the stage.  We paid a bit extra so we got to sit under a roof.  It seems as if the performance is also a straight replication of everything in the original.  I can see why people might think that is cool, but to me it just seems like a bit of a waste.  We don't live in the 16th century, we aren't immersed in that culture, so a lot of the stuff in the original Shakespeare really doesn't speak to a modern audience, and the whole comedic scenes, what was up with those??

I will say that the actor for King Henry V was pretty cool, and it was interesting to see what the stereotypes and prejudices were towards other nations was like back then.  But overall it just seemed to be lacking in many themes, or maybe the themes were all hidden in the unintelligible language or in the weird comedy skits.

The other thing I was struggling with is that Henry V is portrayed as this noble hero, fighting the French because his cause was just.  I'm reading a history book at the moment, called the History of England Volume I, which I highly recommend.  And in that, for about the first time that I've seen, the nobility are portrayed as they probably were like.  In that they were in it only for themselves, they saw their position as a way to make some money, with little regard for the common man.  So it was hard for me to reconcile how Henry V probably behaved with how Shakespeare was having him act.

I'm not saying I'm over Shakespeare, I think his plays still have a lot to say, I just found it striking the difference between Antigone, a 2000 year old play, and this one, a 500 year old play, as to how much I took away from them both.