BWW Reviews: RICHARD II, The RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon

For his first production as Artistic Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Gregory Doran has staged a remarkable rendering of the historical drama RICHARD II. Directing a dream cast that includes veteran classical performers David Tennant, Jane Lapotaire, Michael Pennington and Oliver Ford Davies, Doran's production combines keen storytelling clarity and visual inventiveness.

David Tennant delivers a finely nuanced performance as Shakespeare's self-absorbed, ill-fated king. Although he sports long hair extensions and flowing robes that visually evoke Richard's self-image as God's representative on earth, it quickly becomes apparent that Tennant's all-too-human king is fatally unfit to rule. Tennant, who pitches his voice higher than normal, uses the play's heavy rhyme to great advantage. His adroit, playful handling of the highly patterned verse suggests a man more focused on form than substance. The actor's affected physical mannerisms and bored demeanour convey a leader petulantly out of step with the demands of office. Tennant teases great humour from his early scenes, which provides balance to the pathos and vulnerability of his final downfall.

Tennant is supported by three masters of the classical stage: Lapotaire, Pennington and Ford Davies. The play opens with Lapotaire, playing the newly widowed Duchess of Gloucester, grieving over the coffin of her murdered husband. Accompanied by sombre dirges sung by a trio of female vocalists, the concentrated stillness of Lapotaire's silent, black-draped form slowly quiets the audience. Once the play begins, Lapotaire appears in only one scene, but for the brief time she is onstage, she owns it. She tempers her character's vast well of emotional anguish with a surprising dose of humour, and skilfully crafts a richly dimensional character.

As the ailing John of Gaunt, Pennington embodies conscience as he rails against the excesses and indulgences of Richard's court. When he rallies his dwindling physical strength for a final confrontation with the king, the result is a scene of breathtaking theatricality.

Oliver Ford Davies gives a commanding performance as a father caught between conflicting loyalties. His Duke of York is onstage for most of the play and undergoes an amazing range of human emotions from grief to impotent fury. A much-needed scene of domestic comic relief pairs Ford Davies and Marty Cruickshank as quarreling parents at odds over the conduct of their son.

Doran's production highlights the moral ambiguity of both King Richard and his successor, Bolingbroke (later Henry IV). Nigel Lindsay brings a touch of thuggish machismo to the role of Bolingbroke that offers a sharp contrast to Tennant's androgynous Richard. Any sympathy the audience might feel for Bolingbroke's genuine grievances - he is first banished, then deprived of his inheritance by Richard - is overshadowed by his cruel and disdainful treatment of the ousted king.

Designer Stephen Brimson Lewis uses projections against the back wall to convey shifts in locale. The stage remains essentially bare except for a metal bridge that lowers into position for scenes in the throne room and floor sections that raise to reveAl Richard's dungeon.

During opening night, at two different moments, objects fell from the upper levels of the stage, landing close to audience members seated in the first row. These mishaps were two of the very few occasions that detracted from the action in this beautifully crafted production.

Gregory Doran has set a goal to stage each of the plays in the Shakespearean canon once over the next six years. Richard II is a glorious inaugural step.

RICHARD II transfers to London's Barbican Theatre in December.

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