It will come as no surprise to many that I
am quite the fan of Shakespeare. I’m also quite the fan of David Tennant, both
as the Doctor and out of it. So when the Royal Shakespeare Company announced
plans to broadcast their production of Richard II, I leapt
at the chance. While there is no substitute for sitting in a darkened theatre
with 1500 others, seeing it in a cinema with two dozen others is perhaps the
next best thing.
The first play in Shakespeare’s History
cycle, Richard II dramatizes the last
months of the monarch’s reign, from 1398 – 1399, and begins, historically
speaking at least, at “one minute to midnight.” Grounded in a very medieval
world of godliness and saintliness, righteousness and morality, Shakespeare’s
play is not to be mistaken for ‘capital-H’ history; while they are relatively
faithful in terms of the progression of their events, Shakespeare’s History plays
are instead dramatic analogies for the socio-political climate of Elizabethan
England (dealing with issues of succession, rebellion, and wise counsel) and
are structured in a way, reminiscent of medieval mystery plays with their
clear-cut vices and villains, heroes and everymen.
