The bellicose patriotism in this, the last instalment of Shakespeare’s Henriad, makes it a perfect drama for today – showing us the repeated history of war, invasion and acquisition in the name of nationalism.
Those parallels are unspoken in this production, traditionally rendered in period dress. Director Tamara Harvey begins with a flashback – from Henry IV, Part 2 – to an ailing Henry IV and a son keen to don his crown, to denote the ambition that now lies within the younger Henry. Alfred Enoch makes a genial young king, with a limber playfulness at the outset that carries the last embers of “wildness” from his dissolute days with Falstaff. Enoch harnesses his likability to spur on the fight in his “once more unto the breach” speech and Saint Crispin’s Day rallying call.
