TheatreguideLondon
www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk
The TheatreguideLondon Review
Richard II
Donmar Theatre Winter 2011-2012
Director Michael Grandage and actor Eddie Redmayne have found some intriguing new colours in the character of Shakespeare's weak king, in a production that is otherwise solid but not especially inspired.
Reminder: Richard banishes his cousin Bolingbroke and seizes his inheritance. Returning to claim what is his, Bolingbroke winds up taking the crown as well, becoming Henry IV.
The key to the play is Richard's personality, frequently seen as weak, profligate and self-dramatising; the central irony of the play is that while Richard is God's anointed king, Henry is actually the better man for the job. There is no question that Richard has Divine Right on his side; the problem is that he relies a bit too much on that.
Redmayne's king has the revealing habit of half-consciously posing in the image of medieval icons, betraying his sense of himself as more than merely human. He also plays every moment as a conscious public scene, eyes and ears alert to the effect he is having on others and clearly enjoying his own performance.
Redmayne actually carries that portrait a step further by giving Richard the air of a precocious little boy performing for grown-ups and lapping up their adulation and, when things turn against him, suggesting a self-pitying and petulant child confused that this new act doesn't generate sympathy the way the old one produced applause.
The idea of Richard as arrested in his emotional and psychological (though not intellectual) development, reacting like a child to the highs and lows of his adventure, is actually quite satisfying as an explanation for both character and plot developments.
There are attractive performances around Redmayne, notably Andrew Buchan's almost thuggish no-nonsense Bolingbroke and Ron Cook's York, straining to keep up with what's going on without lapsing, as some Yorks do, into Polonius-like foolishness. But they, and everything else about the production, are journeyman-solid rather than inspired.
My touchstones for productions of this play are how they answer two questions Shakespeare keeps tantalisingly ambiguous, leaving the opportunity for inventive and convincing characterisations: at what point does Bolingbroke's goal shift from his inheritance to the crown, and when (and why) does Richard give up and decide to abdicate before actually being asked.
The first is never answered here. Buchan's Bolingbroke never seems intent on the crown, and just accepts it without visible surprise or satisfaction when it is offered. The second – the moment Richard gives up – seems to come much earlier than usual, as Redmayne plays Richard's brief despair on his return from Ireland (the 'Hollow Crown' speech) with far more finality than I've seen it before.
Those who don't know the play will be able to follow it and understand Richard, if not everyone else around him. Those who know the play will have to be satisfied with the central performance as the only fresh touch.
Gerald Berkowitz
Return to TheatreguideLondon home page.
Review - Richard II - Donamer Warenouse 2011
| Buy this title at AMAZON.COM |