20 December 2013
On
Saturday we were at the Barbican in London to see the Royal
Shakespeare Company's production of 'Richard II'. I think we got some
of the last available tickets when I booked, way back in March. David
Tennant's return to the RSC in the title role in Gregory Doran's
first production as the new RSC Artistic Director made this a very
hot ticket. I had worried that more than eight months of anticipation
might have made for an anticlimax but we were not disappointed. This
was a great production of an unusual Shakespeare play. I had not seen
'Richard II' before but I studied 'Henry IV Part 1' at school and it
was fascinating finally to fill in the gaps in the back-story to a
play I am very familiar with. David Tennant was excellent as the
Messiah-like king, with flowing robes and extremely long hair: his
lightning-quick mood turns and comic asides are amazing to watch.
When we saw him as Berowne in 'Love's Labour's Lost' (reviewed here
in October 2008) I said he was “an electric stage presence - very
hard to take your eyes off him”. The same was true in 'Richard II'
but this was much more of an ensemble piece and there were also
fantastic performances by Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt, Nigel
Lindsay as Bolingbroke (who becomes Henry IV) and the magnificent
Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York. Doran's production was very
beautiful with a minimal set designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis making
great use of video projection and amazing lighting by Tim Mitchell.
And I loved the music by Paul Englishby which featured a choir of
three sopranos constantly present on a balcony above the stage
together with a band of off-stage trumpeters.
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