Review Roundup: HENRY V, Starring Kit Harington

The Donmar Warehouse is presenting Shakespeare's Henry V, led by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington. Performances run through 9 April 2022.

Joining him are Jude Akuwudike (King of France/ Archbishop of Canterbury/Sir Thomas Erpingham), Seumas Begg (Jamy/Grey/Gloucester), Claire-Louise Cordwell (Bardolph/Bates), Kate Duchêne (Exeter/Constable of France), Olivier Huband (The Dauphin/Ely), Melissa Johns (Mistress Quickly/Williams/Macmorris), David Judge (Nym/Mountjoy), Danny Kirrane (Pistol/Westmoreland), Anoushka Lucas (Katherine/Gower), Adam Maxey (Orléans/Bedford), Steven Meo (Llewellyn/Falstaff), Marienella Phillips (Alice/Cambridge/Salisbury), Joanna Songi (Scroop/Rambures/Harfleur/Governor/York/Burgundy) and Millicent Wong (Chorus/Boy) with Gethin Alderman, Diany Bandza and Thomas Dennis. The production opens on 22 February, with previews from 12 February, and runs until 9 April.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Debbie Gilpin, BroadwayWorld: ...Harington appears to be a natural when it comes to handling Shakespeare's verse: the St Crispin's Day speech is easily one of the highlights of the evening. Just as Sir Laurence Olivier's 1944 film adaptation came to embody the intersection of this play and the Second World War, current events in Ukraine force the audience to look at the play anew and perhaps ask more questions of it than they ordinarily would. A fine production from Max Webster that is worth every minute of its three-hour running time.

Paul Taylor, Independent: Harington as Henry is very fine indeed. His performance pinpoints how the king compensates for his troubled conscience by borderline-deranged flurries of "we happy few" patriotic pep talk. He is often close to banked-down hysteria. His wooing of Kate is as bluff and intimidating, in its maladroit courtly male-order manner, as the moment when the back wall parts in a cross shape, and the monarch looms forward on a gantry to harangue the citzens of Harfleur about the rape and pillage they can expect if they resist his will.

Arifa Akbar, Guardian: Every performance is polished but Harington absolutely stands out: he begins quietly and while he never raises the volume, his transformation in victory is monstrous, erupting into manic laughter on hearing England has triumphed at Agincourt.

Clive Davis, The Times: Given what is happening in Ukraine, we're bound to see the play in a different light. For members of the Game of Thrones fan club, it's also an opportunity to see what Kit Harington (alias Jon Snow) makes of the warrior role. Is he up to the challenge? The answer is a resounding yes.

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard: At any time, this production would look ill-considered and overblown, despite Harington's impressive performance. Right now, it's too much.

Sam Marlowe, iNews: And Webster's production is crammed with intelligent choices. The French speak real French, not Shakespeare's pidgin, and there's a furious underlying critique of xenophobic, flag-waving Englishness and its myths: Wong, fighting in the English ranks, sometimes lapses into Mandarin, and Welsh captain Llewellyn (Meo again) takes vicious vengeance on Danny Kirrane's Pistol for his taunts. The marriage of convenience, too, between Henry and Anoushka Lucas as the French princess Katherine is grimly coercive. With war once again in Europe, this fine staging is a gruelling watch: that's as it should be. It's unsparing, and utterly devastating.

Franco Milazzo, Londonist: As the marquee name, Harington lives up to his billing with an exhilarating and intelligent performance. This plum role has recently been taken on by Tom Hiddleston and Timothée Chalamet but the Game of Thrones actor brings something extra. As someone suddenly thrown into a political and military leadership position, beset by betrayal and facing seemingly insurmountable odds, Henry is similar to GoT's Jon Snow and Harington builds on his experience playing the latter while also mining the moral marrow of the man beneath the crown.

Suzy Evans, London Theatre: Harington is charismatic as the title character, making this distressed character and unsympathetic king likable. (However, be warned, the first thing he does on stage is blow chunks.) Harington takes "Harry" from his boyish partying days into his power-hungry battle cries seamlessly, and there are few actors who can deliver a Shakespearean line as well as he. His St. Crispin's Day speech is astounding.

Andrzej Lukowski, TimeOut: 'Game of Thrones' and 'Eternals' star Harington's journey is fascinating and subtle. Much of his behaviour in the first half is pretty standard for this play. As the story of 'Henry V' begins, the young king is in the process of deciding whether he should attempt to take his family's French lands back (after almost falling asleep during the Archbishop of Canterbury's byzantine PowerPoint presentation on French inheritance law - a brilliant way of enlivening one of the most notoriously dull speeches in Shakespeare). A sneering attempt by the French ambassador to put him in his place (by offering an insulting gift of tennis balls) prompts Henry to invade. He is charismatic, well-liked, and insofar as England going to war with France makes any sense today, he seems justified enough by the standards of the Late Middle Ages.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: Harington is, of course, the main point of interest and he rises to the challenge of the part. This Henry is a charmer, with a loner's wariness that can melt when he needs to persuade. In the first act in particular, he finds his way beautifully through the long inspiring speeches, taking you inside his head as his voice catches slightly as he unwinds the words. His "Once more into the breach, dear friends" delivered from a gantry, in the midst of swirling smoke and flashing lights, is a rousing cry to war; the St Crispin's Day speech before Agincourt has charismatic power.

David Benedict, The Stage: Kit Harington's increasingly staunch Henry is meaner of spirit than most - his French prisoners come off uniquely badly - but even Harington's hard work is partially scuppered by directorial overkill. Several key moments, including the St Crispin's Day speech and Henry's prayer, are swamped by music ranging from well-sung unaccompanied choral music echoing the period of the play to a heavily overegged soundtrack. Adding tension via inserting the famous slow-build from Handel's 1727 coronation anthem Zadok the Priest beneath a scene feels like an act of bad faith.

Photo Credit: Helen Murray

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