Swingin’ swords at Santa

You have to admire the Falcon’s Eye Theatre, a newish company based at Folsom Lake College, for going against the prevailing tide. The Christmas decorations are going up in the stores, and most of the theatrical competition is preparing family fare for the holidays. But Falcon’s Eye is doing Henry V—a lean, action-driven history play by Shakespeare, brimming with burly men swinging broadswords and uttering bloodthirsty battle cries.

There are also scenes in which they watch with a steely eye as three colleagues—just revealed as traitors—are sentenced to a swift death for treason and hustled offstage. (Take that, Santa Claus.)

At the same time, staging Henry V is something of a marketing challenge, since it’s a play that most people don’t know well. Mostly, folks are familiar with the two movie versions: Laurence Olivier’s upbeat, heroic 1944 film, featuring a well-dressed “cast of thousands” on grassy green battlefields beneath sunny skies, with banners flying. War never looked so appealing and glorious; the film was partly funded by the British government as a morale booster during World War II. And Kenneth Branagh’s darker, grittier 1989 version, with bloody soldiers slaughtering their opponents in the muck during desperate, sweaty hand-to-hand combat on a smoky, body-strewn battlefield. Henry eventually triumphs, but victory comes hard.

But both films employ close-ups, camera angles and special effects—to say nothing of large casts, actual flames and real horses—to emulate “reality.” In its original form, as a play on a stage, Henry V opens with a speech exhorting those in the audience to use their imagination: “Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them printing their proud hoofs i’th’receiving earth, for ’tis your thoughts that must deck our kings.”

In this production, director David Harris makes savvy use of 13 actors (most taking multiple roles), a few projected images, a bit of stage fog and a set composed of framework towers and big, stackable wooden boxes to imply battlefields, ramparts, a throne room and more.

Henry V also calls for a 20-something actor who can handle the title character’s swift transition from playboy prince (who once partied with the dubious Falstaff) to manhood, becoming a battle-tested, decisive ruler—capable of making tough decisions. (His followers don’t come to address him as “dread lord” for nothing.) And in this production, young George Sanford does a good job delivering Henry’s major speeches, including “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” Sanford isn’t quite as sharp in his closing scene as an awkward suitor, but on the whole, he gives a persuasive performance.

The other actors range from middle-aged veterans to community-college students, and their performances run the gamut from effective to merely serviceable. But overall, there’s enough good work to sustain the piece.

Several battle scenes (under fight choreographer Jonathan Williams) work out quite well, but a few moments didn’t jell on opening night. The production takes advantage of the expansive setting of Oak Hills Church—there’s room to run around and really swing those swords.