Richard II

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.

Our Review:

8 January 2001

The RSC scored a huge hit at Stratford this year with its History of England plays. This Richard II is the first of them to reach London and, judging by the standard of the production, it's not hard to see why the cycle has been acclaimed so highly.

Not only does director Steven Pimlott have a clear vision for the play, but he plainly points the way to future plays in the series with details such as the white rose carried by Richard as the Lancastrian Bolingbroke ascends the throne.

But let's not dwell too much on the future for there's plenty of meat in this cautionary tale alone. Pimlott begins the play with Richard's “I have been studying how I may compare this prison….” speech, setting out from the start, the constraints faced by the monarch. Richard comes to appreciate how isolated he is, and at the end, Bolingbroke (now Henry IV) takes up the theme. Ultimately, Richard II is about kingly power and its limitations, not the flawed perso...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 8 May 2001:

Despite some strong competition this had to be the highlight of the season - it rescued the play from medieval prettiness and was completely riveting from beginning to end....

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