Review: English Kings Killing Foreigners, Soho Theatre

Theatre, remarkable art form that it is, can be lightweight and fun and heavy and serious all at once. It can fearlessly tackle issues head-on or slyly peek around corners. It can propose arguments that feel utterly ridiculous and, at the same time, are God’s honest truth. Mirror reality? You bet. Fake everything? Absolutely. All this, dear reader, rolled round my head while watching English Kings Killing Foreigners, a dazzlingly layered and consistently inventive piece of theatre. Written and performed by Nina Bowers and Philip Arditti, the performance is one big puzzle-box that entertains, provokes, and lingers. And I haven’t even got onto its title and ridiculously prescient main themes yet. 

The show, we’re told, is inspired by a real production of Henry V in which Bowers and Arditti worked together six years ago. I say ‘we’re told’ because it’s never clear what is true and what isn’t. Both actors excel at the slippery, self-aware game of meta-theatre. At one point, Bowers plays an actress a lot like her, but not her, preparing to play Henry V. As she does, she roleplays as her white, entitled director leading the rehearsal. She does this so well, incidentally, she wins laughs of recognition before opening her mouth. Arditti, meanwhile, in character, fully embraces the ‘actorliness’ of his fictional self, including, in a delicious moment, mentioning dear ‘Kenneth Brannaaaagh’ in passing. This single elongated pronunciation speaks volumes about the insecurities and pretensions of the acting trade. Breaking character, he also needily and repeatedly asks the audience for notes on his performance. Two shiny sides of the same magic coin. 

The self-conscious humour is never throwaway. Even at its broadest, it remains rooted in character and purpose, keeping us emotionally and intellectually invested. Visually, the production strips performance back to basics: a bare stage, black trousers, white shirts, and our “imaginary forces” put to work. Only in the final moments, as a show-within-a-show unfolds, do traditional lighting, costumes, and props appear, including, most pointedly, a St. George’s flag.

Why are the English obsessed with Shakespeare? How should artists from diverse cultural backgrounds respond to his legacy? Can we just explain away the Stratford playwright’s references to slavery? Can his language be reclaimed, reformed, and remade? Can we use it for our own purposes now? Can we champion the underrepresented with it? Can it give voice to the unheard of the past if we want it to? Or will the St. Crispian’s Day speech always actually be about English exceptionalism and boshing the French? Henry V was propaganda in Shakespeare’s day, and this show asks, urgently, whether it remains propaganda now. If it is, who benefits? Who are we fighting when we produce it? Who wins? Who loses?

The finale sees positions entrenched. Bowers, once sceptical, throws herself into the kingly role while Arditti falters, suddenly unable to believe in the Bard’s work. It’s toxic to him. Maddeningly so. Things quickly escalate, and he raises a gun (very safely) to his co-star’s head, leaving the choice with us: what happens next? It’s a bracing ending, which of course, isn’t really an ending at all. The questions skilfully and playfully posed by Bowers and Arditti are a long, long way from being answered. 

Writer & Performers: Nina Bowers & Philip Arditti
Creative Producers: The Project People
Creative Consultant: Ellen McDougall
Associate Artist: Emre Koyuncuoğlu
Design Consultant: Erin Guan
Sound Designer: Jamie Lu
Lighting Designer: Alex Fernandes 

English Kings Killing Foreigners plays at The Soho Theatre until Saturday 18 October.