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some thoughts on richard ii, a (more coherent) thread: https://twitter.com/contraststudies/status/1248291638188765185
richard at the beginning of the play is a vainglorious little brat. his fingernails are painted with gold leaf!!!
frankly he's not a very likable character, but it is hilarious to see him looking so utterly bored at such important moments in other people's lives?? david pls
his advisers, who are essentially also his ladies-in-waiting are... the gayest things ever. they follow him around the way ducklings follow their mother.
they eventually indirectly lead him to his downfall. it's been pointed out in some reviews of the play that richard ii historically was seen as being on the feminine side. leaves a lot of room for interpretation where his advisers are concerned...
this also for me explains a lot about the choices of the costume department throughout the play. but more on that later. david tennant wore hair extensions for this run, i believe, and a wig in the later shows.
i loved this sequence. riveting performance from john of gaunt and the duke of york. richard, of course, is being a little shit to both of his elderly uncles.
richard ii swings from lighthearted joy, to anger at his "three Judases", and finally to shock and horror at the news of their deaths, in a matter of minutes.
david's mentioned in an interview that he tried to stick as closely to the original text as he could, but the historical fact that richard ii became king when he was just 10 years old did influence his performance.
this scene was one of my favorites. this is the moment where richard ii was the most kingly. it is also the last moment we see him actually dressed like royalty.
the famous deposition speech. i mentioned this in my earlier thread - the kiss is only one part of an absolutely incredible performance by david tennant and oliver rix. the TENSION. i don't think i breathed the entire scene.
(this is a terrible screenshot but) i have a very strong feeling that they broke character for just one moment right here, where david tried to put the crown on oliver's head. ADORABLE
this bit murdered me. richard looks at aumerle like he's about to say something, but doesn't. he does this not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. LOOK AT AUMERLE'S FACE. he doesn't take his eyes off richard for a single second. the cheek caress ended me
costume! gone are the royal clothes. the only thing he has left is his necklace. he puts on the crown one last time, renounces it, then puts it on his cousin's head.
two things about this scene - very strong Jesus imagery. richard the only one dressed in white (apart from the members of the clergy). he's the only one with long hair, particularly significant when compared to the rest of the characters onstage here lol.
a friend who is a theater director told me he had never seen richard ii portrayed with humor alongside the tragedy. that is, until he watched this performance. MISS TENNANT PLS
richard and his wife don't really interact much throughout the play. we mostly see them together only in their royal capacities. but even with all the gay overtones with aumerle, richard and his wife are clearly in love. no to bi erasure!!!
nearly at the end. richard in chains in the dungeon, stripped even of the necklace. the state of his formerly spotless white clothes show he must have been in here for a long time now.
this scene was beautiful. but man, i gotta say it. WHAT'S UP WITH THE NIP SLIPS WHY ARE THEY SO OBVIOUSLY PLACED??? PAGING THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT LMAO
(spoiler?) a group of men break into the dungeon and try to kill richard. he somehow manages to kill all of them, but at the last moment, gets stabbed in the back. richard pulls off his murderer's mask, only to discover it was aumerle. THE LOOK ON HIS FACE
this is not how the original text ends. in the play, richard is murdered by some nobleman named exton. this ending destroyed me, and it made so much sense. look at richard touching aumerle's cheek, aumerle with tears in his eyes. !!!!!!
i could yell about this play for weeks. couldn't go more in-depth bc i'm struggling with the character count. i can only imagine how much more moving it would have been to have watched the actual performance!
one review i read was written by someone who got to watch it multiple times. of course, being theater, it's a different performance, a different portrayal every time. IMAGINE THAT. i talked about david a lot but the entire cast was AMAZING. and now, on to hamlet. (END)
