"Richard II". Jesus College Shakespeare Project
It's been two and a half years since director Peter Sutton and the Jesus College Shakespeare Project finished the Bard's first great tetralogy of history plays, Henry VI parts i, ii and iii , plus Richard III . For four thrilling terms the Elizabethan dining hall rang with the clash of dynasties and roses, and a generation of students grew up with the roles they played, almost at the pace they were originally written. It was thrilling stuff. But it was also Shakespeare in the foothills of his dramatic and poetic genius. Now, as we approach the midpoint of this epic, twelve-year endeavour, we have a new tetralogy, a newer (and older) history, and a playwright at the peak of his powers. Where the first 'usurpment'* was all about how the actions of kings affect the world around them, soaked in the kind of blood and gore that even the Davids Weiss and Benioff would aspire to, this later group - comprising Richard II , Henry IV parts i and ii , and Henry V - turns the focu...