Richard II Is The Independent's Play Of The Week

The Royal Shakespeare Company's current production of Richard II which stars David Tennant in the title role is The Independent's Play Of The Week.

They say:

After their glorious Hamlet, David Tennant and Gregory Doran reunite for a lucid, gripping Richard II.

A splendid Tennant admirably resists any temptation to make the king likeable, exuding the bored irritability that erupts in tyrannical caprice.

Richard would always choose theatrical effect over political prudence, and with his gift for playfulness Tennant runs sarcastic rings round his usurper in the deposition scene.

But there isn't a weak link in the cast, from Nigel Lindsay's Bolingbroke to Michael Pennington's John of Gaunt, Oliver Rix's Aumerle and Oliver Ford Davies's Duke of York. A hit.

0844 800 1110; rsc.org.uk; to 16 November