Shakespeare against Paris: Translating Henry V on Belgian stages in the Post-War era

Description

Henry V is often read as a nationalistic play showcasing British military victory against a ridiculed French enemy. This often-identified Francophobic subtext has understandably led to a particularly limited performance history of the play in France, to the notable exception of a single, well-known production in 1999 at the Festival d’Avignon (dir. Jean-Louis Benoit). This relative lack of stage performances tends to extend to other francophone countries and regions outside of the French borders. Shortly after the second world war, however, two productions of Henry V saw the light of day in Francophone Belgium (1952, dir. Claude Étienne; 1955, dir. Louis Boxus). While the designs, costumes, and casting choices seem to have been indebted to the successful film of Laurence Olivier (1944), the aims of these productions, first and foremost, seem to have been faithfulness to Shakespeare, both in terms of historicizing staging choices and in terms of the text, which was rendered in all its subtleties – down to problematic perceived anti-French overtones. This paper sets out to discuss these two Belgian productions of Henry V, suggesting possible reasons behind the choice to translate this challenging play onto Belgian stages twice over the course of three years, and analysing possible motives behind staging and textual choices, including the maintenance of apparent Francophobic content. Analysing Boxus’s and Étienne’s Henry V against the backdrop of the Parisian quasi-monopoly over Francophone theatre in the post-war era, this paper suggests that the productions may have participated in efforts to build a strong Belgian theatrical identity independent from its culturally dominant neighbour, and illustrates how the attempts to be as faithful as possible to Shakespeare’s original and the references to Olivier’s film sought to establish a more direct filiation with England, thereby taking distance from the perceived tendencies of Parisian directors to adapt foreign plays to French tastes.

Period	11 Sept 2024 → 14 Sept 2024
Event title	History and Translation Network Conference 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Graz, AustriaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International