Transporting the Bard to the Blitz
Director Damien Ryan's first main-stage production for Bell Shakespeare isn't taking the safe route - he's reframed the popular Henry V within a meta-narrative that sees the production played out by a group of boys trapped in a bunker during the Blitz of 1941.
The conceit is based on a true story in which a similar group was stranded in a classroom during the war and for 57 nights bolstered their courage by rehearsing and performing a new play each week.
Ryan's bold move comes with some backing - he's had plenty of experience with Shakespeare as artistic director of the company Sport For Jove, and by a likely coincidence and earlier production setting a work of Shakespeare as performed by folks in wartime - Eleventh Hour's King John - proved how potent the juxtaposition of the two eras can be.
Bell's Henry V opens in Melbourne on Wednesday.