Shakespeares King Harry :: William Shakespeare Plays Literature Essays

Director and playwright Kenneth Haigh once said, â€Å"You need three things in the theatre—the play, the actors and the audience, and each must give something.† (Robertson 159) How true that these three components must work together toward the success of a play; each contributing to the beauty of live theatre. Upon directing a play, one ought to have complete control of the first two aspects (namely, the play and the actors) as they are consciously chosen and painstakingly molded and manipulated. However, the audience is an entirely separate matter. One does not necessarily get to hand-pick one’s audience; yet, control is still possible. Theoretically, theatre-goers will contribute two things to a production: first, they will bring with them a personal history, and secondly, they will have a reaction informed by this history. Thus, an awareness of what the audience might bring to the play is crucial in anticipating their response. Of course, every spectator will be different—culture, age, race, politics, religion, gender and any number of factors will all play a part. But with careful consideration of these possibilities, a good director ought to expect what response the audience will have to different aspects of the production. This can only be an advantage, as preparing for the crowd’s contribution will allow one to direct the play and actors in a manner that will produce the desired response. An audience’s tears, laughter, horror, confusion, shock, applause, etc. should all be controlled (to a certain degree) by the director. In taking this into consideration, plays written in the past—intended for theatres and audiences of the past—can take on great and exciting changes when brought to audiences of the present and future. William Shakespeare’s Henry V is no exception to this rule. In light of recent circumstances in the United States of America, a contemporary performance of Shakespeare’s Henry V would be quite poignant by staging the character of King Harry as a mediocre (but at times likeable) leader, in order to expose the humanity of men in times of war. The parallels between Henry V and the United States of America’s current political affairs are quite notable. Drawing upon these in a present day performance of Henry V would be quite engaging and inviting to the appropriate audience. Initially, King Harry is remembered as a â€Å"vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth† (2.