Henry V

History, in Shakespeare’s time, consisted mostly of the heroic deeds of noblemen. And that’s pretty much the way Shakespeare wrote his history plays, including Henry V, in which male characters outnumber females by about 10 to 1.Community theater companies in the present age, however, seldom have that kind of gender ratio. So it’s no surprise that in the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival’s Henry V we find women (dressed as men) playing various dukes, swordsmen and churchmen. Think of it as a divine payback for the practice in Shakespeare’s day of having young men or boys play the female roles.

I don’t mind the switch, but I suspect some walk-in customers who are unfamiliar with the play may be a teeny bit unsettled—especially since women dressed as men are a critical component in several Shakespeare comedies, and we modern Americans tend to be pretty hazy about our own history, much less England’s.

Director Luther Hanson probably makes things even less clear by setting this period piece in “1415 to the Present,” mixing in a few costumes from later periods of England’s imperial glory (like the British Raj). It’s a nifty-sounding concept, but it never gets much traction on stage.

Several scenes in the show’s first half also have a rather posed look, in a play that’s already long on speeches.

But they’re great speeches, and several of the cast members (some from Sacramento City College, some from the community at large) use them to bring their characters to life. Brett Williams, in the title role, looks young and you wonder if he can handle the part. But, like Henry, he rises to the occasion, coming through when the dips are down. Hannah Rahilly trills as the swordsman Fluellen; James Roberts is a lot of fun to watch as the opportunistic Pistol; and Erin Hersowitz has an attention-grabbing battlefield death scene as the Boy. On the strength of these, we’ll lean a little toward generosity and rate this one “Good.”