Jay Peterson
  • Home
  • Headshots
    • Resume
    • Press
    • Reels >
      • Videos >
        • Just Blanks
        • Tommy That
        • Machine Gun Shakespeare
  • Blog
  • The Grunt's Grimoire
    • Grunt3briefings
    • Gruntmarshalbennett
    • No Wish Scenario

Shakespeare's Wars: Henry V vs. Troilus and Cressida

12/1/2013

0 Comments

 
I’ve got a special spot in my thoughts for Henry V.

When going through MEPS (inbound processing before shuffling off to boot camp) I had a paperback copy to keep handy through the various points of waiting. At some point or another I took my “address book,” (A scrap of paper with the addresses of those you’d care to write to. One of the few items I’d be able to have with me during my stay on the island) and scribbled St. Crispian’s Day on the back of it. The paperback I left on a stack of magazines for the next soul passing through. The speech I had memorized by the end of the second week.

Shakespeare isn’t quite the chosen poet of warriors (Kipling likely holds that particular title), but he’s up there. And if he’s been read and/or seen beyond what High School required, Henry V likely makes it near the top of the list.

If I had to take a guess as to why, I’d have to say that its because everyone whose found themselves fighting a war has a counterpart in Henry V’s world. International power brokers who play chess on the world like Henry and Charles. Stoic professional ass-kickers like Exeter. Bearing-impaired shitbags like Bardolph, joined up for loot, adventure, or lack of anything else to do. Wide-eyed boots like The Boy, with no clue what they’re getting into but knowing it’s the most exciting thing they’ve seen in their young lives and not about to let it pass them by.

And then there’s Mistress Quickly. The bit that always hit me hard about Branagh’s film version has dick to do with Hartfleur or Agincourt. It’s watching Quickly seeing loved ones walking out the door, knowing there’s not a damn thing she can do about it except make sure the tears don’t fall until they’re out of earshot.

There’s someone in Henry V that resonates with anyone that’s fought in a war, or had a loved one do so.

But while Henry V resonates with fighting a war, it’s Troilus and Cressida that resonates with living in a war.

I’d only occasionally thought of Troilus before being cast in a production earlier this year. I’d known the gist of it (Romeo & Juliet-ish set against the background of The Iliad) but hadn’t gotten into the story much. The big exception being using Tersities’ “reason you all suck” speech as one of the Machine Gun Shakespeare pieces.

Where Henry’s war has a progression from England to Hartfleur to Agincourt and beyond, Troilus’ war is stuck in Troy, and has been for years. Boredom and bullshit lead to bad decisions all round. It’s one of the most cynical works in the Shakespeare canon. And to an OIF/OEF veteran’s eyes, it looks like Shakespeare embracing the suck.

It’s got moronic higher ups (the entire Greek contigent), the one guy with a clue being unable to get anything useful done (Ulysses), the one guy incapable of shutting the fuck up (Ulysses again), Coming up with conterproductive bullshit as a distraction from all the suck (the exhibition fight), professional shitbags (Thersites), good people dropping their packs when the bullshit becomes too much (Achilles), and a really hideous toll taken on relationships (the titular couple in particular, but it also affects Hector/Andromache and Achilles/Patroclus to an extent).

Even tiny plot points like stumbling around a camp in the dark trying to find Achilles’ tent reminded me of transition quonoset huts in places like Al Taq and Bagram, which all look the same and make trying to stumble back to your own cot after nightfall a mild annoyance.

By the end of the play, nothing substantial has been accomplished but a body count. The suck carries on, as does the war.

For the OIF/OEF vets that read or see both, I personally think Henry V resonates more like the war we fought, while Troilus feels like the one we had to live through.

~J

0 Comments

    Jay Peterson

    Musings on violence, storytelling, and humanity in general.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    April 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    December 2010
    November 2010
    August 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All
    2nd Amendment
    Archer
    Armor
    Barbarism
    Blades
    Blanks
    Boobplate
    Book Review
    Chainmail Bikini
    Fight Scene
    Film
    Firearms
    History
    Killology
    Military
    Reality
    Safety
    Set Life
    Shakespeare
    Teacupping
    Theater
    Tucker Thayer
    USMC
    Viking
    War Stories
    Weapon Of The Week
    Workshops
    Wounds

    RSS Feed

Certa Bonum Certamen

Picture