RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran’s production of Richard II marks many things. It’s a welcome return to the Barbican, which was the company’s London base for many years until previous artistic director Adrian Noble foolishly decided that it was surplus to requirements. It features the sort of top-drawer cast that the RSC is synonymous with, including Oliver Ford Davies, Michael Pennington and (in a brief appearance for her first RSC appearance since 2000) Jane Lapotaire, as the Duchess of Gloucester. And, in a headline-grabbing piece of news, it features David Tennant, and his wig.
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to review the entire production through the prism of Tennant’s wig. It’s a long, lustrous creation that stretches halfway down his back, giving his doomed king an otherworldly quality. That his Richard is sexually ambiguous and camp is almost a given; apart from a strangely macho Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic a few years ago, Richard is traditionally played as a fey and dreamy figure, utterly inadequate for the demands of kingship. Tennant, an actor who has a solidly masculine presence but is unafraid of looking weak and vulnerable, is assisted by his newly flowing locks, enabling him to seem less equipped for the throne than he might be for a L’Oreal advert.
While this might be initially distracting, it works wonders in Doran’s traditional, intelligent reading of the play. Initially, Tennant’s Richard is a detached, amused presence who appears to recede into the background in the face of forceful performances from the likes of Pennington as the dying John of Gaunt and Ford Davies as the hand-wringingly indecisive Duke of York. His verse speaking is, as ever, impeccable and incisive, but it’s only as the evening goes on and his opposition to the pragmatic, manly Bolingbroke (Nigel Lindsay) becomes more pronounced that Tennant comes into his own, offering a fascinatingly nuanced interpretation of the king as a man more intelligent than those around him, but undone by his sense of entitlement and an arrogant belief that his ivory tower will never be challenged. Richard’s great line ‘I wasted time, and time doth waste me’ is delivered by Tennant in an anguished, near-hysterical way, far from the quiet contemplation with which it is often spoken. It’s a superb performance, and shows that Tennant remains a consummate stage actor as well as an international star.
Lindsay’s Bolingbroke is more contentious. Often regarded as the yin to Richard’s yang (so much so that actors often double up the roles), the character is played in a bluff, straightforward fashion, never allowing him to become sympathetic or understandable, but instead highlighting the bullying and manipulative side of the usurper. It bodes fascinatingly for Doran’s productions of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 next year, which should, on this basis, offer a bracingRicly unsympathetic account of the old king.
As ever with the RSC, technical credits, from Paul Englishby’s percussion and trumpet-heavy score to Stephen Brimson Lewis’s atmospheric design, are superb, and the production, which runs a shade over three hours, moves very swiftly after a stately first act. It’s sold out, but if you fancy your chances queueing for day seats or returns, your patience will be rewarded amply.
Royal Shakespeare Company Richard II at the Barbican until 25th January 2014. For more information and tickets visit the website.
