SOURCE: Macaulay, Alastair. “Hytner's Henry V Wins the Argument.” Financial Times (14 May 2003): 18.

In the following review, Macaulay praises the 2003 National Theatre staging of Henry V directed by Nicholas Hytner, especially the production's “triumph of colourblind casting” and Penny Downie as a “modern, female conception” of the Chorus; however, the critic notes that the “nowness” of the production “tips over a few times into the too-gimmicky.”

If Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre season continues as it has begun, we shall be calling him the great showman of our day. First with Jerry Springer—the Opera and now with his own staging of Henry V, he has presented the two new must-see shows in London theatre today. Not, I hasten to add, the two best, but the two buzziest: the shows that every serious theatregoer should soon have seen, the shows to which one should send people who aren't sure what...