Richard II (1975)
Mr John Hood delights in biting off more than most of us think he can chew. After successfully producing Hamlet in 1974, a play, we all assured him, which demanded far more maturity than school acting could produce, he set out to direct Richard II. Now Richard II is, of course, an impossible play for students. Little actually happens. The central figure is self-pitying and unpleasant. And the poetry is well beyond the capacities of actors and audiences.
Like the tar-baby. JW Hood, ”he said nuthin”, when the production was postponed and moved to Syndal, we exchanged knowing smiles. But when it finally opened before a pitifully small audience, we were treated to a remarkably tight, fast-moving play.
The performance opened with immediate conflict between Mowbray and Bolingbroke (Graham Atkinson and James Ross) each vehemently accusing the other of high treason It s a melodramatic scene with splendid formal insults culminating in a challenge to a duel to the death As the tension from this scene subsided we found ourselves held by actors quite capable of handling the formal poetry and able to use the enormous acting space to symbolise and extend the relationships and conflicts within the play.
This aspect of the production was always impressive and enhanced by soma excellent timing of entrances and exits and a flawless performance from the lighting and sound technicians led by Scott Sutherland and co-ordinated by Stage-manager Stephen Hurley, Nicky Thiebergers performance as Richard was extraordinarily good. He managed to bring dignity and pathos to a character who initially strikes us as arrogant and petulant and always borders on the self-dramatising Peter Carver s Duke of York was a similarly complex performance reconciling contradictory attitudes in the one character. As John of Gaunt, John McGrath was required to deliver one of Shakespeare s best known ”purple passages” ”This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle etc.” He did it with great aplomb.
Other memorable moments included Guy Hibbins and Danny Rosenblum in rustic dress discussing politics in a horticultural vein; (Guy in particular was reminiscent of Kevin Heinze at his best) the malevolent relish with which Tony Hall as Northumberland orchestrated Bolingbroke’s rise and Richard’s fall; and the moving scenes where Richard takes leave of his crown and his Queen.
