SOURCE: Taylor, Markland. “Review of Henry V.” Variety 387, no. 11 (5-11 August 2002): 30.

In the following review of the 2002 Shakespeare & Co. production of Henry V directed by Jonathan Epstein, Taylor observes that gratuitous stage business, comic nonsense, and an overall lack of directorial cohesion defined this deeply flawed staging of the play.

For the first time in its 25 years, Shakespeare & Co. has staged Henry V, which joins Macbeth in the Founders' Theater through Sept. 1. It isn't as bad as the Macbeth, how could it be? But its still below-par Shakespeare and continues to suggest S&Co. has an enormous way to go before it begins to live up to its new Lenox campus and its first real theater, the Founders.

Having just 10 actors to perform Henry V is a problem to begin with, and a reading of the playbill makes it look as though many characters must have been excised...