RICHARD II (Shakespeare Happy Hours)***

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_qTG5eLMk

Available until: indefinitely

I don’t really enjoy Richard II as much as the other history plays. Maybe it’s because it’s not very historically accurate – the War of the Roses wasn’t really all Richard II’s fault and I’m not sure who the Queen is supposed to be. His first wife Anne died 16 years before the time when the play starts and his second ‘wife’ Isabella was eight years old. So she can’t really be either of them but there isn’t anyone else she could be. Invented characters aren’t all bad because I like Falstaff but he really added something and he might not be completely invented as he is thought to be based on several real people.

Maybe I don’t usually like Richard II so much because there isn’t usually anyone I really like in this play. None of the characters really seem very nice so I’m not really on anyone’s side. I’m kind of on Richard II’s side because he’s the rightful king but I do like the Henry IV and V plays so I kind of on Henry’s side too because I want everything to get into place for those plays but I don’t usually get really emotionally invested in this play.

But in this production I did like Richard II. Harry Waller shows lots of emotion and makes him seem quite vulnerable which means he seems like less of a monster. His last speech was really sad. Some people think Richard II had mental health problems or a personality disorder and that was very believable in this performance.

There were some other good characters too. John of Gaunt doesn’t live for very long in the play but William Sutton makes him a really powerful character so it’s clear why people expected him to usurp the throne. Jerome Harmann-Hardiman plays Henry Bolingbroke who does usurp the throne and becomes Henry IV. He makes him into a very human character who doesn’t just do everything in a cold and calculating sort of way. He obviously finds it difficult sometimes to know what to do.

Tom Kanji is a disreputable Thomas Mowbray, Ella Mock is a dignified Duke of Aumerle and Joel Colodner is really authoritative as the Duke of York who is Aumerle’s dad and Richard II’s uncle. Everyone is related in this play. It is like watching a soap only the writing is much better, there aren’t any affairs and I think soaps might have a higher body count.