HENRY V – Marquis of Anglesea rather than he of “once more into the breach” – is the extraordinary subject of Seiriol Davies’s show How to Win Against History, which has its first fully-staged production at Bristol’s beautiful Old Vic Theatre … made even more exotically, fantastically beautiful in Hayley Grindle’s Cabinet of Curiosities set.
The Welsh actor first staged this exuberant romp back in 2016 at Edinburgh, and now, fully fledged, it is back as part of Bristol’s celebrations of Pride Month, on stage until 12th July. The fifth marquis, one Henry Cyril Paget, is having a bit of a moment … a film about his life, Madfabulous, began filming in Wales in 2024. The release date is expected later this year.
The Old Vic’s auditorium was filled with glitter and feathers, blending nicely with the stage sets and costumes, as the audience learned about the sad, lonely and unloved life of one of the greatest spendthrift aristocrats of British history. Despised and ignored by his father, he was (of course) sent to Eton where he was a fag of the most floggable propensities, and he quickly learned to equate manliness and team play with violence and humiliation. Like all English aristos he was expected to marry and procreate, but it really didn’t interest him. When he discovered his first cousin Lilian was similarly disinclined to follow tradition, the two decided to embark on a fated marriage.
It’s not exactly a spoiler alert to tell you the rest of the story, but I would encourage you to get out your glad rags, leave your inhibitions in the closet and head to the Old Vic for a romp that will take you a zillion miles from the horrors of the world of summer 2025. The audience left the theatre smiling and talking to one another – and that’s rare these days.
Brilliantly witty, this musical show is packed with quirky references as Henry Paget teams up with actOr Alexander Keith(Matthew Blake) to bring art to the proletariat. Sadly, his idea of art, which ranged from a very peculiar set of variations on Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband through to an existential butterfly dance, did not appeal to mass audiences …. not really even to miniscule audiences … not even to German audiences. The millions of pounds of inheritance money might have dwindled, but Henry’s belief did not.
The other side of his complex character was a lost, loveless waif pleading for affection and acceptance. Matthew Blake plays (almost) all the myriad other characters, and as the unfortunate Lilian, he and Seiriol Davies create a truly poignant story of two lonely people at sea in a hostile world, forced into situations they find incomprehensible.
The show, with its MD and occasional actor Dylan Townley and a four-piece band, takes us into an extravagant universe with no boundaries, at the same time as creating an awareness of the insurmountable world of expectations and cruelly uninformed criticism (in the demonic persona of The Daily Mail). It’s sumptuous and sensuous, clever and colourful, bizarre and bejewelled.
Seiriol Davies creates a charming, dotty and loveable Henry Paget, at the centre of this extraordinary show that says more about inclusion and understanding than a million appropriate pronouns.
Gay P-W