This Scepter'd Aisle
To reclaim its crown as best
at the Bard, the Royal Shakespeare Company puts on eight history
plays
By
JAMES INVERNE London
Britain's
royal shakespeare company (rsc) has lately been having a hard
time living up to its reputation as the world's foremost interpreter
of the Bard. It has seen competitors, particularly the Royal
National Theatre, encroach upon its hallowed turf. But Shakespeare
is the rsc's middle name and, keen to show that it's still
the best, the company has mounted the Everest of Shakespearean
projects: the entire history cycle from Richard II to Richard
III. The eight plays tell the story of English politics and
dynastic intrigue during a period when kingdoms could be won
and lost in a matter of days and crowns bounced around the
various protagonists like pinballs.
Mounting
all eight works in their entirety is a mighty task and one
the company has never before attempted. This time, 79 actors
play 264 roles in a saga that uses three theaters-the Barbican,
the Pit and the Young Vic-400 costumes, five liters of stage
blood and five severed heads. Those who buy tickets to the
whole thing get to watch almost 24 hours of theater.
But the
rsc's policy of breaking the eight plays into two cycles of
four seems crazy. The first group-Richard II, Henry IV parts
I and II and Henry V-was launched back in March 2000 and finished
last month. The second tranche, embracing the three parts
of Henry VI and Richard III, continues in London until May
26.
In March
the company even sent the second minicycle on a lucrative
North American tour, the first product of a five-year partnership
with the University of Michigan. "The U.S. is the largest
English-speaking territory in the world," says rsc managing
director Chris Foy. "If we are laying claim to the minds of
the world we have to move into America." The University of
Michigan contributed $2 million this year in what Foy hopes
will be the start of a grand scheme that could propel his
company into communities across the Atlantic.
Exciting
as the project may be, it is a shame that a way could not
be found to unite the two history halves sooner.
Although
written out of order and years apart, the plays form a natural,
powerful chronological progression. Since the later periods
were penned first, as fast-moving historical epics with little
of the care for
individual
characters that the mature Shakespeare later lavished on the
prequels, the effect is of a harrowing bleeding away of compassion.
As the civil wars spiral out of control, sympathy for solitary
victims gives way to a numb horror at the mounting carnage.
Which, for anyone doubting the modern-day relevance of these
works, is not so far from the reactions of television viewers
barraged by blanket media coverage of atrocities in Bosnia
or Rwanda.
The rsc
has employed four directors for the project, giving each free
rein. Hence, Steven Pimlott's modern-dress Richard II is followed
by Michael Attenborough's period Henry IVs and Edward Hall's
guns-and-missiles Henry V. Then it's back to robes and swords
as Michael Boyd completes the cycle with Henry VIs and Richard
III. While it is a jolt to finish, say, Richard II with his
successor Henry IV in a business suit and then to start the
next play with Henry suddenly in medieval garb, the different
approaches demonstrate the works' universality.
This cycle
boasts at least two star-making performances. The 24-year-old
David Oyelowo is a magnificent Henry VI. His Queen meanwhile
is the terrifying Fiona Bell, whose Margaret moves from manipulative
beauty to a crazed outcast, dragging her slaughtered son's
bones around in a sack. Earlier, Samuel West and rsc regular
David Troughton proved electric as Richard II and his nemesis
Bolingbroke (later Henry IV). Desmond Barritt is a sad, lyrical
Falstaff, and newcomer William Houston exciting but mannered
as Henry V.
Twenty-four
hours is not a long time to cover 88 years of history, and
it all goes at a cracking pace. The best way to see them-at
London's Young Vic-is over two marathon days. By the end,
as the audience applauds the cast and the cast applauds back,
there is no doubt that the kingdom is worth the patience.
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May 7, 2001 | No. 18
COVER
STORIES
Haunted
by Vietnam
Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey confesses under pressure to killing more
than a dozen innocents in 1969. In his sadness, shame and decades-long
silence, fellow vets see themselves-and the rest of America confronts
war's wrenching ambiguity
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
SOUTH
PACIFIC
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Murder in the Dark...
The still potent fear of sorcery is leading to vigilante killings
THE
ARTS
ART: Andrew Sayers reframes Australia's
view of itself...
THEATRE:
The RSC takes on Shakespeare's histories..
BOOKS: Inside the domestic interior of
Vermeer
MUSIC: Irish boy band Westlife goes transatlantic
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