Synopsis At the age of only ten, Richard Plantagenet succeeded his father Edward III as King of England. It was 1377 and a time of great hardship following the Black Death, but Richard lived lavishly at home and, abroad, pursued an expensive and futile war with France. The taxes he imposed provoked the famous ‘Peasants Revolt’ of 1381 and his attempt to rule autocratically alienated both nobility and Parliament. Shakespeare’s loosely historical but theatrically wonderful account of Richard’s last days concentrates on his most fateful error - the exile of his cousin Henry Bullingbrook and the seizure of his Lancastrian estates. Bullingbrook would return to England, topple Richard and take the throne himself as Henry IV, setting the stage for the bloody ‘Wars of the Roses’ between York and Lancaster. The play’s extraordinary beauty and simplicity, and its study of a man reduced from – as he saw it - divinely appointed King, to a mere mortal without role, freedom or friends, put it among the most moving of all Shakespeare’s tragedies. The Men's Company. All male production.
You wait ages for the Number 1 bus to come along, and then two arrive at once. The day after Nicholas Hytner led his regime change at the National with Henry V, just down the river at Shakespeare’s Globe a season that goes under the title ‘Regime Change’ has opened with another of Shakespeare’s plays about kings and kingship, Richard II.
Both productions seek to underline the contemporary resonance of their stories, but while Hytner’s is explicitly modern in its propulsion of the storytelling into the media age, at the Globe it is more implicit in the season it is a part of.
As the Globe’s artistic director Mark Rylance puts it, “400 years after the transition from Tudor to Stuart rule, and faced with a modern world which increasingly turns to violence in order to effect security or regime change, I offer you a season at the Globe which explores power and change….”
In this “original practices” production that seeks to recreate the staging conditions of a production in the Globe exactly 400 years ago, it vividly rewinds the clock to show how the past always resonates on the future. The dilemmas being faced by the subjects of a vain, indulgent king in challenging his absolute power are precisely the kind that those living under dictatorships still face today.
Shakespeare’s play, tracing the downfall of a king and his replacement by the cousin he exiled, has been beautifully brought to life in an Elizabethan-dress, all-male production by Master of Play Tim Carroll that highlights the politics as well as the pageantry of the action.
The Globe’s ongoing dialogue between its plays, style of performance and the audience continues to grow and grow. My original fears that this would be a ‘heritage theatre’ – a tourist attraction to put beside the Tower of London – were unfounded, and even in a production that looks back so authentically as this one seeks to, the plays are resonating with a power, sweep and intimacy that they don’t often get in other theatre settings.
An integral part of the journey of this theatre is that undertaken by the audience itself, who are forced to engage against the competing distractions of weather good (the sun gets in your eyes on matinees) or bad (raindrops keep falling on your head). But amidst intrusions as ancient as the weather or modern as an odd passing helicopter, there are few theatres where you are more directly engaged as opposed to mere passive observers.
There are also, above all, exemplary standards of performance, led from the front by the artistic director Rylance himself, who takes the title role here of a man with a fragile hold on his authority. But there can be no doubt of Mr Rylance’s own authority as an actor who builds a totally committed company around him. Unlike the character he is playing, they won’t be deposing him anytime soon.
Alongside last year's Twelfth Night, the best thing the Globe has done. They have breathed new life into a difficult play. Great performances and magnificent costumes. I'm beginning to wonder what's the point of going anywhere else to see Shakespeare? - USER: Whatsonstage.com (212.211.104.43)
10 Sep 03
I was disappointed by this extremely average production. Mark Rylance has typically brilliant moments but overall this is badly directed, (some of the basic blocking is faulty to say the least) and some ofthe performances excrusiatingly dull. Most significantly though the story isnot told clearly enough.
Disappointing - USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.35.62.168)
22 Aug 03
A good solid production of a shakespeare play ive never seen or read before. OK so its not inspiring, but if you want to see good solid shakespeare as entertainment pop down to the globe. Although the production is not inspiring the main performance from one of our greatest Shakesprean actors Mark Rylance as Richard is. He is simply amazing every time I watch him he gives such depth and passion, ans here he is captivating as the child like king who is despised. Liam Brenan is also very good as his rival Bolingbroke, with his serious stoop and commanding voice. The rest of the cast is mostly solid with only a few leaks, but do not let this put you of Rylance is worth the ticket price alone. - USER: Whatsonstage.com (80.40.0.217)
05 Jun 03
mark Rylance does sreal the show rather but it is a very enjoyable production, perhaps without the real pathos and the real cruelty of the Sam West RSC version a while back. - USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.35.56.7)
03 Jun 03
It astonishes me how Rylance always manages to find new depth to the text..he was both the saddest and funniest Dick2 I've ever seen. Though the Duchess of (York?), in the scene near the end where she pleads for Aumerle's life, almost stole the show. - USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.35.56.7)
30 May 03
The Globe’s new season opens with a kingly performance that matches, if not surpasses Adrian Lester’s Henry V just down the river.
The problem with this play is that Shakespeare, a doughty respecter of a monarch’s right to rule, has to justify Bolingbroke’s coup, but the poet in him can’t resist giving Richard the best lines, making us strongly sympathetic. Rylance makes this Richard a mincing, prattling, greedy, uncaring snob, uttering a little laugh at the idea of Bolingbroke winning support from an oyster wench, and hurrying to John of Gaunt’s bedside with a handkerchief covering his face.
And yet, he spokes the poetry so beautifully and is acutely aware of his own failings that at the end, the audience is completely on his side. It’s a very human Richard, but some of the play’s powerful political dimension has been lost in this production.
Rylance is aided by a strong cast: Liam Brennan’s blunt Bolingbroke, John McEnery’s plain-speaking Gaunt (although he seemed remarkably healthy for a man on his deathbed), Bill Stewart’s rather tetchy York and a warm Queen from Michael Brown.
Tim Carroll’s rather brisk direction offers us an Elizabethan version of this play, the programme sets out how much research went into the authenticity of the costumes, but that would have counted for nothing if the audience is not engaged. Richard II is not the most accessible of Shakespeare’s plays, but the Globe audience ignored the cold weather and was gripped right to the end.
One minor quibble though: Bolingbroke’s title Hereford, is pronounced in the modern way with the three syllables instead of the customary two: it does tend to interfere with the metre in several and seems a strange decision to take in this most lyrical of plays.
But this is only carping, Rylance’s Richard is a treasure and should have audiences flocking to Bankside over the summer.
- USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.35.56.7)
20 May 03
Mark Rylance and the Globe have done it again! Rylance turns in a thoughtful performance as the hapless RII, losing his crown to a most uncousinly, if pragmatic Bolingbroke (a rather laid back reading from Liam Brennan, who only gets into his stride when shouting at Richard's murderer at the end).
Outside of John of Gaunt, the company's vocals are curiously subdued (hence the four stars, not five). But the acting and the ensemble work are wonderful. Much of the play is mined for comic value, which goes down well with the appreciative groundlings.
This is somewhat less histrionically played than the Ralph Fiennes and even the prehistoric Ian McKellen versions. I would have wished for the level of excitement that this obviously energetic company put into their joyful, dancing curtain call.
Nobody rejoices in "Shakespeare performed" quite as transparently as the Globe ensembles. Turn up the energy a notch. - USER: Whatsonstage.com (81.103.216.106)
A rebuild of Shakespeare's original Globe theatre close to the original site. Society of London Theatre member. Note: Booking opened March 3rd 1996. Tickets for performances range from £5 (standing in the yard) to £37.50 for the best gallery seats). Induction loop facilities. Wheelchair facilities. Extensive education programme. Restaurant, cafe and bar. Dark during the winter but the museum and venue remain open. One of the few London venues with Sunday performances. The Globe Theatre Season runs from April to October. The Globe Education Centre is located in Park Street and runs an educational autumn season.
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