Richard II

Classic Stage Company is re-imagining Shakespeare's historical play, Richard II - which I saw this past Thursday. The play stars Michael Cumpsty, who just last season played Hamlet, also at Classic Stage. He made a great Hamlet - and received many accolades for the role - making me want to see this show very much.

I didn't know anything about the story - and probably should have done a bit of research, which always helps with Shakespeare. However, it was about 2 1/2 hours long and the action probably could have been revealed in about 45 minutes..

I did just learn, after doing a quick search that this play is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's successors: Henry IV, part 1, Henry IV, part 2, and Henry V, and may not have been written as a stand-alone work. Interesting - and probably a good idea to see all of these shows. I did see Henry IV at the Public in 2003 starring none other than Liev Schreiber.

Okay - onto this play itself. The Duke of Gloucester has been killed as the show begins. Richard, the king, is thought to be the murderer - but no one will say this, obviously. Two men come before the king and Richard tries to settle the dispute over which one of these men has killed the Duke. One man, Bollingbroke has to leave the kingdom for six years and the other, Mowbray is banished forever. Richard makes a series of bad mistakes - angers the nobility - and they in turn help Bollingbroke to usurp Richard's power. As Richard leaves to monitor the war in Ireland - Bolingbroke takes over power in England. He crowns himself king Henry IV. After being imprisoned - Richard is murdered by one of the men loyal to Henry...and that's where this adaptation of the story ended. I did read that Henry repudiates the murderer and vows to travel to Jerusalem and cleanse himself of Richard's death.

So as you can imagine - this story, without a great cast, costumes, or set could be quite boring. Brian Kulick - the artistic director at CSC and the director of this show - tries hard not to let this happen. The set is FANTASTIC. It's painted with red walls (the deepest red you can imagine) and gold floors. There is a giant blown up photograph of Richard (Cumpsty) which acts as the backdrop to symbolize his kingdom. The floor is lined with red carpet - which gets rolled away to reveal turf (for another scene outside of the castle), then rolled away once more to a dirt floor to symbolize the English soil. As Richard's kingdom is tumbling, and Henry is seizing power - the giant photograph wall lowers and tumbles as dramatic music plays. We start to see the peasants in the background replacing Richard's photograph with Henry's. The costumes are impeccable. The queen's first dress is something you'd see in a design showroom. All of the men are dressed to the nines throughout the show as well. It's all these little touches that help to re-imagine the play and I think this would make Shakespeare himself proud.

The show's not great - due in part to the nature of the writing - but I give CSC and Kulick a lot of credit for their effort.