just got back from the Tennant RII showing

[angevin2]

The short version: it was the best Richard II I have ever seen.

The long version will follow after I have had some sleep and graded some papers and flailed some more. But I am actually really angry at myself now for booking a flight on Sunday at 4:30, meaning I cannot go to the encore showing at noon. BECAUSE. RICHARD II OF MY HEART.

Comments

[murasaki_1966]

We saw it here (in Australia) last month. Yes it is bloody good. I need a copy on DVD, stat!

[highfantastical]

AAAH, fascinating! Didn't work for me at all, beyond the level of 'is RSC, therefore good quality and enjoyable at a dramatic level'. Can't wait to read your full review, because my reaction was so different.

[angevin2]

Yeah, but you hate David Tennant and I have been saying for years that he'd be a perfect Richard, so I imagine that makes a lot of difference ;)

[highfantastical]

Not meant to be squee-harshing -- I'm glad you enjoyed it! Just interested in our different reactions. :)

[margi_lynn]

SO JEALOUS :P

[madamedarque]

I'm so very excited to read your review!

[denorios]

What did you think of the actor playing Bolingbroke (his name escapes me at the moment)? I was very underwhelmed by his performance, and I wasn't sure if he just came across as wooden and stilted because he was playing across David Tennant, who is a very electric actor...

[angevin2]

Nigel Lindsay? I thought he was fine. Not my absolute favorite interpretation of Bolingbroke (and after I saw the production I was retroactively amused by everyone in the pre-show featurette talking about how sympathetic Bolingbroke was at first, because in the early scenes he really struck me as a grandstanding asshole), but a) he wasn't bad or anything and so didn't detract from the performance for me, and b) I am pretty calm about all other Bolingbrokes I will ever see because Rory Kinnear's was flawless, so that I can face all others with equanimity.

[denorios]

Definitely with you on Rory Kinnear - I thought he was wonderful. If I could somehow wave a magic wand and make my own personal Richard II, he would be my Bolingbroke. But as much as I love David, he wouldn't edge out Derek Jacobi as Richard in my fantasy casting.

[angevin2]

See, I was absolutely gobsmacked by how exactly Tennant played the Richard in my head -- I'd kind of reconciled myself to accepting that nobody ever would, and then he did. I really only even thought of the Doctor once, and it was at a place where you really can't help it:

And here have I the daintiness of ear
To cheque time broke in a disorder'd string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me...

And for some reason that just made it MORE POIGNANT.