Post on the website either a short response to the performance of Henry V (especially concerning what we read in class) or a response to the ending of the play (if you were not able to see the school performance).

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2004

Answers

BOSS!!!!! The actors and actresses had their lines down pact. The sound effects and the dynamics of voice makes the play even better. Sitting in the audience, it was just like being there inside the play. The setting and voices made the atmosphere perfect. Awesome expirence, doubt I'll forget it.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2004

The interpretation of Henry V shown at school was much better than I actually expected. I think that Ilya did an incredible job along with the "Chorus"(narrator guy) and the student who played King Harry. I thought it was interesting how the director interpreted the King of France's attitude towards everything, he was always very negative when speaking, even after the war was actually over. After I thought about it though, it made more sense because he was losing all of his ower. I also enjoyed the three Monty Python and the Holy Grail jokes they threw in.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2004

I agree with Leah... definately boss. I thought it was really interesting the way that the director decided to play the part where the Dauphin sends the tennis balls and how King Harry reacted to it. It was much easier to uderstand than simply reading it and was really humorous in parts that would have usually been boring. Norah played the boy perfectly and the hanging was very real. It was great!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

THE PLAY WAS AWESOME...erm, I mean BOSS!!! The "fer,ferret,etc." part was priceless. All the actors did an incredible job! One of the highlights from the play had to be where Westmoreland slaughtered the Dauphin. I was dismayed when the sword didnt shatter like i heard it did in the Thurs. dress rehersal. If we did this play again next year, I'd definitely go again!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

I never thought I would agree with Andrew but the play was GREAT. King Henry was very good. The way that he destroyed the mirror was very god. I also enjoyed the part when Nora tried to learn english (the belbow, the males) HA they were classics. Unless they make a movie of it that was the best I have ever seen.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

I agree, the play was boss. I especially found the King Henry actor very persuading and I think he played his part very well, best out of everyone. Ilya has a very good French accent, I must say, and the jokes taken from movies like Men in Tights and Monty Pithon were hilarious. Overall, I think that the director did a good job of balancing the comedy with the tragedy. I might actually start going to our plays now because that one was so good. :)

Also, I think that everyone should actually go to the plays even if you don't really want to, it's a good way to support the school. *ahem* Sean Faltermier *ahem*.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

The play was of very high quality for a high school performance. Each actor knew his or her part and was able express the emotion of Shakespeare. The actor paling king Henry was able to give the speeches accurately but with emotion as well. The Monty python references were a nice touch and added some humor to the play. I disliked the way the Dauphin was portrayed to be a moron. I think Shakespeare meant for the Dauphin to be a match for Henry not a complete nincompoop. As high school plays go I give it a 9 out of 10.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

the play was most humorous and quite enjoyable. It was halarious when Ilya got stabbed and the sword shattered. The henry guy seems to have some anger problems.I wonder if the french really lost that badly in real life.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I found the play enjoyable as well. I am not usually a huge Shakespeare fan, but I found myself interested and amazed. The way the director decided to portray the characters was much different than I was expecting. In my mind, Henry was a cool, slick guy, who could fire up his army, but kept his cool as well. However, the director decided to make him an angry man, and got that point across very well (mirror breaking, chair throwing). I think the play had more emotion this way, and made it that much better. Also, the way the Dauphin was portrayed as an arrogant idiot was effective (especially because Ilya was so great at it!). The director AND all actors/actresses definitely knew what they were doing, and what the play was all about, and because of this they were able to give each character a persona and distinguishable traits. The Monty Python humor was great too, everyone likes to laugh. I really had a great time and plan on attending the rest of the school plays AND maybe some other Shakespeare! You never would have found me saying that last week!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I thought the play was really good in the way that it was performed. I was a little confused at first with the girls having a lot of the male roles. Calrton did an excellent job with the prologues. He had my attention every time he spoke. Henry had a little anger problem and it scared the crap out of me when the glass shattered on Saturday night.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I loved Henry V. I thought Nora Byrd did a fabulous job portraying Katharine and The Boy. Mike was a very convincing Henry as well. I loved the way there were contemporary influences (Monty Python), but all of the dialogue was still Shakespeare. It was great how the director put a fun twist on everything like when Ilya was changing characters. The play managed to keep people interested, but still have all of the language of Shakespeare. I thought it would be boring, but it was really funny and interesting.

P.S. My dad liked it too, and now he's all obsessed with Shakespeare again.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

No, I did not see the play. This is what I jave to say about the end of the play:

The plot didn't really gain my interest at all until the climax at the battle of Agincourt. There are nice descriptions made by the author, and it is kind of neat to read about how Henry disguised himself as a normal soldier and learns their perspective. Then, despite five-to-one odds, England "miraculously" beats France and Henry marrys Catherine. The ending of the play was definitely more interesting than the earlier parts.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

Wowies. That play was spectacular! Everyone did such a stellar job. ^^ The freshmen (Alison, Nora, Ilya, and Ben) all made the play worthwhile. I really enjoyed hearing Carlton do the Chorus. He was fantastic. Mike also made Henry V very realistic, and it was really neat how he broke that mirror. I must say that my all time favourite part was when Ilya had to change from the Duaphine to Fluellen on stage. Did you all get a kick out of the little "tune" he was humming as he did it? I know I sure did. ^^

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

Oh yeah the previous post was mine. In case any of you actually care. ^^P

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I was not able to attend the play, however, i had a lot of fun reading!

From what we were reading in class, the ending was 3.2X better because Ol' Bill used great description of what was going on during the war and even made me kinda believe the French would win although Henry was English. That treaty between England and France will not last because the French are snooty. Whatev

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I have to say that the ending of the play was a whole lot interesting than I expected. Alot of the middle parts were humor or nonsense. I was actually readin the play because I could not make the shows. What we read in class was very funny (along with some sick jokes). I'm surprised Shakespeare's play was very good...I was expecting something boring, such as a biography on Henry the Fifth.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I agree with Jessi DeAlto that the girls playing guy roles was confusing, especially King Henry's uncle being a girl. I thought the Monty Python jokes were funny, and the acting was great. When Ilya changed from the Dauphin guy to the military person on stage was funny, along with just about everything else he did (aka french accent, weird posture, etc.). It was a good play, and I was impressed because of all the lines the people had to memorize.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I was unable to make it to the play, so I was stuck with reading it. I enjoyed the play, but I don't think I would say it was one of my favorites. It was kind of predictable that Katherine and Henry were going to get together. I would say that the English conquering France and being a heir to the throne was a bit of a surprise. I thought that everything would end up kind of bad. Well, I guess Henry VI inheriting and losing the land was pretty bad, but I was thinking more like bloodshed and everyone dies. To conclude, I would say it was a pretty good play and I enjoyed laughing at it when it was funny.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I didn't get to go to the play but I did manage to read the rest of it. Henry the 5th in my oppinion has a good plot, and even more has some funny jokes. Regardless of that though it is a long play in a type of english that is relatively hard to follow. I thought it was pretty predictable that Henry got the girl(kathrine) and ended up winning the war. There were some interesting twists inside of the story like the assasination plot. I also liked the fact that there was a chorus, because that brought things to life a little bit for me. Overall this play was alright, not to boring and not too confusing.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

i didn't get to see the play either. I was in the car, for 5 and a half hours.

But anyways, I like how the French lost so badly even though they insanely outnumbered the British. I guess they were lovers and not fighters. Also I like how King Henry V makes and agreement with the French even though he won. But that's ok, it had a semi-happy ending.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

First off, I would very much like to make my claim that I did not actually go to see the play: however, I did have the extreme luxery of sitting alone reading one of Shakespeare's works that has not quite received the same opinions throughout history as, say, Hamlet, but was, I suppose, a fluid and solid read.

The name of the play is "The Life of King Henry the Fifth", and I must say that Shakespeare's interpretation of this king's life represented through his actions over the course of maybe a year isn't exactly what one would consider a "lifetime". Furthermore, to the task at hand, I do not think that the final act (V) fits the play at all. A wedding comes at the end of a comedy, correct? Who found the invasion of a country the most amusing thing ever to happen on God's Green Earth? As my good pal Hal would put it, war is " . . . in a moment look to see the blind and bloody soldier with foul hand defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; your fathers taken by the silver beards, and their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls, your naked infants spitted upon pikes, whiles the made mothers with their howls confused do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry at Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen . . . " If that's not comedy, then I don't know what is funny.

In addition, who amongst us can really claim that beating an army by a 5-1 margin, taking roughly 30 killed on your side, your face strewn with blood, Earth, and sweat, that this would be a suitable ending to the play? Although this would shorten the play to only four acts, this would still be better than going out with the daughter of the man whom you've just slaughtered 10,000 of his fittest men the day before. Really, Shakespeare, who do you think you're kidding with this ending? Nevertheless, he was a better thinker, playwright, and strategist with words than I'll ever be, so I think I'll just let him pass this one.

Again, I did not see the play, so I cannot speak for the actors and actresses who made it possible, but I'm sure it was exquisite. Happy travels to all who actually made it to the end of my journal entry!!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I managed to catch the Saturday performance of the play, and I must say... bravo! Yes, I *am* a Shakespeare nerd (*dodges rotten fish*), but I thought that the play was exceptional even if one didn't appreciate the works of Billy dear.

The actors did an outstanding job; in particular, I think congrats should go to Ilya (who pulled off two utterly hilarious performances), Nora (who played both of her roles perfectly), the Chorus-slash-cool peasent (who completely nailed his performances yet again and whose name is completely eluding me at the moment), and the Henry V (who did an amazing job bringing out all the different subtleties in his character).

Of course I got an inordinately massive kick out the Monty Python, etc. references, and thought that the actors did an excellent job in playing up the humor of the... play (coconuts, "NI!", Coy Catherine the Crafty, and stripping Dauphins, anyone?). I dare ye not to laugh at least once during this play.

At the same time, they presented the Deeper Messages of the drama in a way that I'm thinking would have made Shakespeare proud. One is torn (or at least I was) between seeing Henry as a brave, good, and fair if somewhat ambitious and temperamental king or a cruel, power- hungry, tantrum-throwing jerk whose greatest desire is to decimate the male population of France and stick people's infants on pikes.

But good ol' Will always likes to serve up some food for thought.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004