Ad not shown

Details

Richard II archiveAt the age of only ten, Richard Plantagenet succeeded his father Edward III as King of England. It was 1377 and a time of great hardship following the Black Death, but Richard lived lavishly at home and, abroad, pursued an expensive and futile war with France. The taxes he imposed provoked the famous 'Peasants Revolt' of 1381 and his attempt to rule autocratically alienated both nobility and Parliament. Shakespeare's loosely historical but theatrically wonderful account of Richard's last days concentrates on his most fateful error - the exile of his cousin Henry Bullingbrook and the seizure of his Lancastrian estates. Bullingbrook would return to England, topple Richard and take the throne himself as Henry IV, setting the stage for the bloody 'Wars of the Roses' between York and Lancaster. The play's extraordinary beauty and simplicity, and its study of a man reduced from - as he saw it - divinely appointed King, to a mere mortal without role, freedom or friends, put it among the most moving of all Shakespeare's tragedies.

Cast/Performers

Kevin Spacey (Richard II), Julian Glover (John of Gaunt), Ben Miles (Bolingbroke), Oliver Cotton (Earl of Northumberland), Peter Eyre (Duke of York), Susan Tracy (Duchess of York), Sean Baker, Lewis Barfoot, Kieran Bew, Naomi Capron, David Collings, David Dawson, Jack James, Oliver Kieran-Jones, David Leon, Sidney Livingstone, Ciaran McIntyre, Steven Miller, Iain Mitchell, Genevieve O'Reilly, William Osborne, Alastair Robins, Mark Tandy, David Weston, Glyn Williams

Creatives/Company

Author: Shakespeare
Producer: Old Vic
Director: Trevor Nunn
Design: Hildegard Bechtler
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Fergus O'Hare

Richard II

Richard II (Play) production archive for QTIX code T564829164. Details of all Richard II archived productions can be found under the QTIX code: S4764

Archive Listings

14 Sep 05
  to
26 Nov 05
Old Vic Theatre
West End, Greater London
Performance Details => Venue archive

Reviews

No UKTW or User reviews available.
Ad not shown
CORONAVIRUS: All venues in the UK were shut down on March 16, 2020, and the restrictions were finally lifted on July 19, 2021. It is important to mention that the UK Theatre Web archive listings (iUKTDb) from March 2020 to July 2021 might not be accurate due to the lack of information regarding rescheduled and cancelled shows.

Mastodon X - Twitter © Dynamic Listing Ltd, UK. 1995-2024