Westminster’s H5 is Full of Surprises

SALT LAKE CITY — In a state that is home to the second largest Shakespeare festival in the country, where high school students and college students alike have fairly easy access to excellent Shakespearean productions, seeing college productions of the Bard’s work is unsurprising. Westminster University’s H5, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, adapted by bree and Phillip Valle and directed by Jamie Rocha Allan, is surprising in all the best ways.

I like to arrive early to the theatre, to read the program unrushed, study the set, and mentally settle into the world of the play. This non-traditional production does not allow for such ritual. The audience is not invited into the space before the production starts. Without spoiling the delightful and surprising way this production begins, I’ll simply say, if you arrive early, don’t plan on a leisurely wait inside the theatre. Henry V begins with a prologue inviting the audience to use their imagination to enter the world of the play, and the unexpected start to the show is a fantastic way to begin this particular play.

Upon entrance, the space is thick with fog. Center stage, lit with a down spot, is a golden crown sitting on a stand, atop a red velvet pillow, flanked by two large candelabras. The effect is breathtaking. Kudos to the production’s scenographer, Spencer Potter for this moment, and many similar throughout the production. Set design, credited to Spencer Brown is sparse and flexible with a red and a blue staircase flanking each end of the acting space, denoting respectively, the English and French terrain, while simple benches are utilized in differing configurations to quickly transition from place to place throughout the production. Lighting design is credited to both Brown and Gavin Versteeg and is simultaneously simple and dramatic. The use of floor-level spotlights, in red or blue, or sometimes both depending on the locale, creates a dramatic effect as the light cuts through the fog.

Henry V is the story of the formerly delinquent Prince Hal’s somewhat reluctant transformation from rogue to King. The Valle’s adaptation covers this transformation in the first scene, without dialogue, as a group of drunken youth enter dancing and staggering in the dimness just outside of center pool of light. When one of the youth, played by Betti Kalunga lurches to one side to vomit, another actor takes the crown from the pillow and places it on her head, coronating her as King Henry V, in a sudden, tight beam of red light. This brief moment, an excellent device by Allan, gives all the backstory needed.

With few exceptions, the costumes by student Sofia Nyquist, are fantastic. The cast moves in and out of multiple characters, accomplishing each change with subtle, and not so subtle, addition or removal of various costume pieces. There is a time-spanning feel to the costuming. Pieces like Henry’s mesh bustle and train tied over her leather shorts early in the production, create a sense of her regal position. Equally stunning is the white bodice and tutu layered over a black base worn by Myranda Lloyd as the French messenger Montjoy, serving as the first introduction to the opulence of the French court. We subsequently meet the Daufin, played with overstated flair by Todd Hamlett, dressed in a high cut thong bodysuit peeking over ruffled short pantaloons, all framed by a gilded white tailcoat. He struts across the stage like a fashion model, in dangerously high-heeled patent leather ankle boots. Mizantzidi as the King of France enters the scene with delightful wide, denim paniers tied about her waist. This scene clearly establishes that Allan intends to present the French court as buffoons.

This directing choice, although humorous, has its drawbacks. By painting the French court as incompetent clowns, and carrying that incompetency through into the first battle planning scene, it becomes difficult to believe that the English armies could truly be afraid of losing to the French. Just before the final battle scene, Hamlett’s Daufin finally assumes some degree of dignified sovereignty, but it seems too little, too late. Additionally, playing the French court with heightened and stereotypical French accents, makes it difficult to understand what is being said. Although as a fairly well-known plot, and with the aid of visual storytelling, it’s not hard to follow the plot.

The student actors are well cast and they work cohesively as an ensemble. I appreciate the gender-blind casting, allowing more women to participate than is typical for a Shakespearean history. Kalunga creates a convincing Henry. She has great stage presence and quickly emerges, as a capable leader. Patterson’s Chorus also creates a commanding presence that not only physically leads the audience into the space, but figurately leads us through the production with confidence and clarity. Lloyd’s Montjoy is perfectly haughty. Chloe Mizantzidi capably managers her several roles ranging from the King of France to the lowly Bardolf. Hamlett, a recent Westminster graduate doesn’t hold back in either of his roles, Pistol and the Dauphin, bringing adept comic timing, sincerity and a touch of chaos to the production.

AJ Neuschwander takes a mixed approach to the stage combat. Battle training begins with the cast marching in formation, drilling in choreographed movement with quarter staves. The battle of Harfleur is then conveyed in a dance-like movement sequence. The combatants crisscross the stage, falling to the floor at times in unison, leaping over one another, and even lifting and carrying the fallen and wounded with stylized grace. In this space, this convention works very well and is visually stunning. The final battle at Agincourt is then undertaken with broadswords and knives, intermittently visible within a strobe effect. The strobe creates an interesting visual effect, but when compared to the stylized choreography at Harfleur, it falls flat and left me wishing Neuschwander had carried the stylized movement through to the end.

The production is very short, coming in at under an hour with no intermission. The adaptation is cut to the bare bones, excluding almost entirely the final scenes, which normally serve to tie everything out. Although the final scene of Westminster’s production is visually powerful, presenting Henry stiffly staggering back to London, shedding battle gear in a low slung white spotlight, it lacks an expected clear sense of closure that signals to the audience the play is over, and it wasn’t until the entire cast entered and began the curtain call, that I realize it had ended. The brevity is also due to the intentionally quick pace of Allan’s directing. Such pacing is essential to scene transitions and to keep a production from dragging–and this production does not drag. But what is somewhat lost in the driving pace, is the beauty of Shakespeare’s language. Kalunga’s Henry creates a powerful presence, but at times her line delivery is so fast-paced that the language and comprehension suffers. This is particularly true in Henry’s most iconic monologues at both Harfleur and Agincourt where Kalunga almost throws away well-known lines like “Once more unto the breach” and “we few, we happy few..” There is great opportunity in this production to slow down line delivery at key moments, without slowing down scene pacing, and let the musicality of the Bard’s words do the heavy lifting.

Nonetheless, such minor failings do not detract from the overall excellence of this university production. It is refreshing to see innovative takes on classic theatre, and this company and Westminster’s theatre program is to be applauded for that. Westminster’s H5 is exhilarating and well worth the experience.