Henry V is the play we whip out in a crisis. Laurence Olivier rallying the troops in the 1945 film version is as imprinted upon English consciousness as Land of Hope and Glory. But Edward Hall's modern-dress production takes a more sceptical look at Shakespeare's play, and the result is a bruising, intelligent consideration of what heroism and national identity mean in a more fragmented world. Despite being three and a half hours long, it has a racy feel, and the stage boils with furious energy, red smoke and rose petals.
With design by Michael Pavelka, Hall sets the play at the pithead. A lot of the battles have a second world war feel, but the cries of "Engerland" are pure Euro 2000. Hall suggests that the same raucous energy that is part of the national character that got the country through the war can also be a negative thing. Henry's army here is a rabble of unemployed, disenfranchised, regional voices made into a cohesive whole only by the dogged determination of the young king.
William Houston's Henry V is a man, not a myth. This is a chap trying to do the right thing, but it never comes easily; a man testing himself, who discovers, almost to his own surprise, that he is a natural leader. He's not a natural wooer, though his final scene with the French princess Katherine has a funny, gawky charm as he tries to penetrate her proud resentment.
Just as Hall's production is the calling card of a premier-division director, so Houston's performance should allow him to lay claim to any number of major classical parts. His Henry, after all, is a man who is almost trying on roles to see if they fit. He is not naturally charismatic but makes himself seem that way. He is full of complex ambiguities as he weighs up what is right and what is necessary. He has Bardolph hung with a curt nod of the head, the prisoners of war dispatched in a volley of machine-gun fire. But behind the cool, ruthless exterior there lurks self-doubt and a man who loves to be liked.
However, this is no star vehicle, but a real company piece that brings the play vividly alive and reminds that winning the war is the easy bit - it is peace that is the real test of character.
Until April 21. Box office: 020-7638 8891.
