REVIEW: ‘The Tragedy of King Richard the Second’ at the Almeida
Photo: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, by William Shakespeare, stars Simon Russell Beale as the title character. Photo courtesy of Marc Brenner / Provided by the Almeida Theatre with permission.
LONDON — The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by William Shakespeare is one of the great joys of the Bard’s oeuvre. Though, admittedly, using the word “joy” to describe this tragedy seems a tad bit wrong.
A new production of the show, which is also known simply as Richard II, comes thanks to London’s wonderfully productive and thrillingly inventive Almeida Theatre (home of a revitalized version of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke and the upcoming West End transfer of The Twilight Zone). At the center of the Joe Hill-Gibbins-directed revival is Simon Russell Beale, who is giving a praiseworthy and original take on the title character.
Richard is a fascinating historical figure and a theatrical creation filled with depth, folly and maddeningly confusing provocations. For an actor of Beale’s estimable talent, the character must be a wonder to play.
At its heart, Richard II is fixated on the debilitating weight of the crown and the strategies one employs to keep it, chuck it and transform it. The king, at the start of the play, makes some questionable decisions involving his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke (Leo Bill), and Mowbray (Saskia Reeves, in several parts). These two have been sparring, and Bolingbroke has made an allegation about Mowbray’s involvement in the murder of Bolingbroke and Richard’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.
The scene, pitched with energy on the Almeida’s compact stage and ULTZ’s simple design, plays like the opening rounds of a boxing match, with Richard as the intermediary, a referee of sorts. It is decided that Bolingbroke and Mowbray will enter into a duel, the loser of which will be considered the liar in the affair and thus deserving of death.
Somewhat surprisingly, King Richard stops the duel at the last moment. He decides to banish the two fighters instead; Mowbray receives lifetime banishment, while Bolingbroke receives 10 years (later reduced to six years).
With this punishment, and Richard’s later confiscation of Bolingbroke’s inheritance, the die is clearly cast. In Bolingbroke, the king has a newfound enemy of the state; he’s waiting beyond the border and already starting to gather troops against the sovereign. It doesn’t take long for the usurper to break the terms of his banishment and challenge Richard’s throne.
Audience members unfamiliar with the source material may think the king will muster a fight to the death, but he doesn’t. He willingly enters the struggle as an underdog, as a person waiting to be deposed. It is this peculiar character arc that makes Richard such an interesting character, and Beale knows it.
The actor, certainly one of the preeminent interpreters of Shakespeare in contemporary times, digs deep into the pathos, pity and reflection of this title character. He must endure such a crestfallen dive from his royal position, which is believed to be endowed by God Himself. Beale catapults down with such simultaneous strength and weakness, sometimes showing both qualities in the same turn of phrase.
It’s a bravura performance layered with precision and hurt, suspect behavior and victimization.
Near the end, when Richard issues his soliloquy — a section of which opens this production — the payoff for Beale’s complex performance is clearly earned: “Thus play I in one person many people, / And none contented. Sometimes am I king. / Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, / And so I am; then crushing penury / Persuades me I was better when a king. / Then am I kinged again, and by and by / Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke, / And straight am nothing. But whatever I be, / Nor I nor any man that but man is / With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased / With being nothing.”
Along the way, the actors who populate the rest of the cast hurl insults and sometimes buckets of dirt at the sovereign. In return, he either accepts the punishment (believing in the inevitable) or lashes back, occasionally with his own violence (manifested in buckets of blood). By the end of the one-hour-40-minute performance, the stage and the actors are drenched in the basic elements that make such a presence in Shakespeare’s dialogue: earth, water, blood.
Bill is an excellent Bolingbroke, someone who takes a similarly topsy-turvy character arc. He starts off accusatory and then blends into righteousness, believing he has a case for the throne. By the end, and thanks to Richard’s clever self-deposition, Bolingbroke becomes what he always wanted, and also what he may fear the most: a king without a proper claim to the throne. Much of these changes in the character can be evidenced in Bill’s expert line delivery, but also his facial expressions, as he realizes the consequences and sorrowful pity of Richard’s decision-making.
Reeves is to be commended as well. She is an accomplished stage, film and TV actor, and for this production she pulls quadruple duty as Mowbray, Bushy, Green and the Duchess of York. This last role finds her pleading to the new king, Henry, for the life of her treasonous son. This dialogue, near the end of the play, provides her ample opportunity to showcase some riveting acting work.
Joseph Mydell as Gaunt, so pivotal in the opening scene, is also a standout, although the audience is hard pressed to find a weak link amongst this ensemble. This is expert Shakespearean drama, and kudos to the cast and Hill-Gibbins for pulling together such finely focused performances dripping — sometimes literally — with emotion, energy and fragility.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, starring Simon Russell Beale, is now playing at London’s Almeida Theatre. Performances continue through Feb. 2. National Theatre Live will broadcast the production live to cinemas Tuesday, Jan. 15. Click here for more information and tickets.
