Saturday 5 November
Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s finest plays and this stunning adaptation by Tangle Theatre Company does full justice to its beauty and psychological acuity. The production uses the musical and theatrical styles of the Southern African townships, slashing the huge cast to its essentials. Five strong actors take on the principal roles, breathing contemporary life into a play that centres on events that took place at the end of the fourteenth century and was written at the end of the sixteen. The result is both intense and stark. These are the politics of power. The focus may be the divine right of the individual monarch, but there is a universality in the prevailing theme of the fragility of leadership. And within this universality lies our troubled land, England, the ‘sceptred isle’ of John of Gaunt’s famous speech.
Directed and adapted by Anna Coombs, the essence of the play is laid bare. Metal and wooden step ladders of varying height crowd the stage to serve as visual emblems of the rise and fall of kingship. Fraught with tension, the players circle each other with wary apprehension. A strip of lights across the back changes colour with the shifting mood. Ambient sound suggests the echo of voices within the stone halls of a medieval castle.
The bold style never loses grip, even when the cast break into song and dance. John Pfumojena’s music plays a critical role, from rousing choruses to plaintive lament. Increasingly discordant electronic tones ricochet through Richard’s final breakdown.
While the ensemble work is strong, this is a play which requires great contrast and complexity in a single performer. And Daniel Rock’s charismatic and empathic Richard brings out the power, pathos, and subtlety of the role. He presents as one born to rule, convinced he has been anointed by God, seeped in narcissism, wielding his absolute power. As his enemies draw close, panic rises, his identity falters and we witness the shuddering disintegration of a fragile personality. But Rock never quite loses the breath of majesty. He is completely at home with the verse so that even at the end, deposed and weeping, we are conscious of the particular quality that transforms this play from just another history into a great tragedy.
There are inevitably losses in adapting a play of this length. The king’s favourites and the supporting women are cut entirely as is Harry Percy, later Henry V. And it is hard to pick up on the complexities of Plantagenet history in the opening scene. But pretty soon, all of this ceases to matter. What comes over most powerfully is what does matter, the basic arc of the story and the trajectory of Richard’s fall.
Tangle is a touring theatre company based in Somerset. Sadly, the run at the Pegasus is brief, but the company is worth looking out for elsewhere in the region. Their next production, also directed and adapted by Anna Coombs will be a promenade version of Shakespeare’s little known collaborative drama, Sir Thomas More.
★★★★★ Ros Carne, 6th November, 2022
Photo credit: Stuart Martin
