REVIEW: Outstanding production as one-man show brings Henry V to the village hall

Mark Carey in Into the BreachMark Carey in Into the Breach
Mark Carey in Into the Breach
Mark Carey has taken an hilarious but poignant look behind the scenes of the village amateur theatre company in this brilliant one-man show.

Performed at The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Wednesday 30 and Thursday 31 October 2024.

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Outstanding production as one-man show brings Henry V to the village hall.

Mark Carey in Into the BreachMark Carey in Into the Breach
Mark Carey in Into the Breach

Mark Carey has taken an hilarious but poignant look behind the scenes of the village amateur theatre company in this brilliant one-man show. Mark, who wrote and directed the play, was outstanding as five main characters and several minor ones in this tour de force performance.

Pompous director Simon Trottley Barnes elects to produce Henry V for the education of the masses rather than a pantomime, initially casting himself in the lead role but realising it is beyond him. But this was rural Devon in 1942, and handyman George Crocker, who only wanted to be in the pantomime, was initially given the part of Chorus.

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It was Chorus who invited us to imagine the soldiers and horses at the battle of Agincourt, and cleverly, with a simple gesture or a single prop, Mark did just that to convey each character in this play. A pair of wire-rimmed glasses and an elocuted voice for prim and proper spinster Gloria who was cast as the much younger Princess of Katherine of France; retired Major Palmer clutching a whisky bottle, irritable and forgetful; and a dog collar for the other-worldly vicar. Mark played Arthur, who had Asperger’s Syndrome, sympathetically and with gentleness as the underestimated Arthur revealed his extensive knowledge of Shakespeare.

George had only ever left the village to fight in France in WW1. Rehearsing the play’s battle scenes and death reminded him of friends who had not survived, as his experiences in the trenches had remained hidden for 25 years, and bringing tears to his eyes on the village stage. Mark’s ingenious script intertwined passages from Henry V with George’s own feelings so the words could be said by either character. Mark delivered the dialogue flawlessly and showed his skills not only as comic actor but an excellent Shakespearean one.

Mark Carey in Into the BreachMark Carey in Into the Breach
Mark Carey in Into the Breach

Although Into the Breach is ostensibly a comedy, it draws on one of Shakespeare’s mightiest plays to demonstrate the tragic effects of war told through the eyes of George, an ordinary working man in a Devon village.

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