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Prepare to be Shakespearified. Now I know that isn’t a word – yet – but changes are afoot at the RSC and perhaps we need a new term to celebrate them. This week, Richard II, starring David Tennant, will be broadcast live into local cinemas up and down the country. And on the November 15, another live performance will be streamed to 34,000 pupils across schools all over the UK. This is a first for the RSC and is a innovative idea from the company who embark on a new phase under recently appointed artistic director Gregory Doran.
I have seen Doran’s inaugural production and it does not disappoint. Tennant’s Richard is a longhaired and long-fingered schemer, grasping his uncle John of Gaunt’s estates to fund war in Ireland with a childlike glee, before Gaunt (Michael Pennington) has exhaled his last breath. Along with favourites, Bushy, Bagot and Green, Richard, resplendent in gold-flecked robes, presides over a court that couldn’t be more different from the solidity and seriousness of his enemy Bolingbroke, played by Nigel Lindsay.
But this Richard is not all wimp and no vigour, but proud and aloof with more than a whiff of vanity. His court is that of the magician, won over by art and caprice. Energetic and youthful, he weaves a spell that is as flimsy as it is self interested, thus, when the rebellion against him builds, our sympathies quickly dissolve into airy thinness. History tells us that all are easily won by the earthiness of Bolingbroke, a man who wields a broad sword and knows how to use it.
Fresh off the boat from Ireland, Tennant writhes on the ground lizard-like during “ ”let us tell sad stories of the death of Kings“ ” speech, wrestling in a mire of self-pity, as the strength of the rebellion against him becomes clear. However he clings onto the notion of the divine right of kings before winningly and teasingly offering up his crown, in a game of here dog – fetch! Bolingbroke, eager to pounce, can only stand stock-still and wait.
David Tennant is superb – playful, petulant, self-absorbed and sarcastic. And it is the strength of all the cast in this true ensemble that makes the production so good. Jane Lapotaire excels as the newly widowed Duchess of Gloucester, swerving from lachrymose despair to levity as waves of grief wash over her. Oliver Ford Davies (Duke of York) provides gentle comedy as he struggles to remain a dutiful subject to the changing face of power. Doran’s direction more than hints at an attraction between Richard and young Aumerle (Oliver Rix). Which makes his decision to have Aumerle literally stick the knife in to Richard during his later incarceration at Pomfret Castle, all the more interesting.
Designer Stephen Brimson Lewis simple set of imposing arches, crossed by a metal balcony provides the perfect frontier between court and rebels. True to Gothic sensibilities our eyes are drawn up to the gods of the Swan theatre where on the left there are a trio of trumpeters and on the right a trio of choristers performing Paul Englishby’s music with a purity that would make angels weep. This is proper grown up Shakespeare, appropriately reverent.
The play unfurls with a simplicity that previous RSC productions, with some too clever directorial flourishes, have lacked. The play is sold out at Stratford but transfers to the Barbican in London from December 9 to January 25, 2014. Failing that, catch it at the cinema. Gregory Doran plans to tackle all the plays over the next six years. How great that so many more of us will have the chance to see them.
by Gabriella Crewe-Read