was avowedly the same real time as that of the audience.” The spectator might be asked to consider “the future of the monarchy,” the “presentational style of New Labour or the current state of English national identity.” 94
In this Brechtian-style production, Richard, played by Samuel West, dragged around a wooden box that would serve as dais for the throne, mirror and coffin. The circularity of power play was emphasized when, at the close, Bullingbrook (David Troughton) took Richard’s place on the end of the wooden crate and repeated lines from a “Prologue” (reassigned from 5.5.1–5):
6. Steven Pimlott’s 2000 Brechtian-style production where Sam West “dragged around a wooden box that would serve as dais for the throne, mirror and coffin.”
I have been studying how to compare
This prison where I live unto the world.
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer’t out.
At the start, strains of “Jerusalem,” the sound of marching, followed by bells, offered a pastiche of emblematic associations of “England”: patriotism, war, celebration, and ceremony. A purple light associated the set with the royal court as Richard, dressed in smart pullover and trousers, commenced his “Prologue” sitting on his box, then rose to put on his jacket hanging on the back of his “throne” (a gold-painted chair) and his crown, a thin band of gold. It had a powerful effect on the audience:
Pimlott’s
Richard II
at Stratford’s Other Place is a powerful modern production in a merciless white box. The audience are at the closest quarters with the players in experiencing the “prison” which Samuel West’s Richard compares to the world. West is utterly compelling through every stage of the character’s progress from indecisive monarch, through the pretence of an almost Ophelia-like madness, St. George’s flag wrapped about him, to being “eased with being nothing.” When he enters bearing his coffin like a cross you are also caught up in a passion play about the killing of a king. David Troughton’s Bullingbrook is no reluctant regicide but a hectoring tyrant on the make, a man who insists the audience should get to its feet to endorse his usurpation. 95
Critics commented on “excellent performances from Christopher Saul (a bustling, creepy Northumberland) and David Killick (a shrewd, watchful York)” 96 and Catherine Walker’s “touching” Queen Isabel, 97 and applauded Sue Willmington’s design, which created “a lethal debating chamber” 98 for “a gripping distillation of the pomp and circumstance, disillusion, confusion, and cynicism that now beset the term ‘Englishman.’ ” 99
THE DIRECTOR’S CUT: INTERVIEWS WITH CLAUS PEYMANN AND MICHAEL BOYD
Claus Peymann was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1937. He studied in Hamburg, where he also joined a student theater company, and from 1966 to 1969 he was artistic director of Frankfurt’s Theater am Turm (TAT). In 1971 he directed the world premiere of Peter Handke’s
The Ride Across Lake Constance
at the Berlin Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer, which he founded together with Peter Stein. He has been artistic director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart (1974–79), the Schauspielhaus Bochumer (1979–86), and Burgtheater, Vienna (1986–99). Since 1999 he has been artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, where he staged his much acclaimed version of
Richard II
(discussed here), translated by Thomas Brasch. The production was awarded with the Berlin Critics’ Award and was invited to the German Theatertreffen as well as many theaters worldwide, from Tokyo to Stratford. In 2010 the staging was taken to Vienna Burgtheater. He is known for producing both classical work and premieres of Austrian dramatists, including plays by Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, Elfride Jelinek, and Peter Turrini.
Michael Boyd was born in Belfast in 1955, educated in London and Edinburgh and completed his
In this Brechtian-style production, Richard, played by Samuel West, dragged around a wooden box that would serve as dais for the throne, mirror and coffin. The circularity of power play was emphasized when, at the close, Bullingbrook (David Troughton) took Richard’s place on the end of the wooden crate and repeated lines from a “Prologue” (reassigned from 5.5.1–5):
6. Steven Pimlott’s 2000 Brechtian-style production where Sam West “dragged around a wooden box that would serve as dais for the throne, mirror and coffin.”
I have been studying how to compare
This prison where I live unto the world.
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer’t out.
At the start, strains of “Jerusalem,” the sound of marching, followed by bells, offered a pastiche of emblematic associations of “England”: patriotism, war, celebration, and ceremony. A purple light associated the set with the royal court as Richard, dressed in smart pullover and trousers, commenced his “Prologue” sitting on his box, then rose to put on his jacket hanging on the back of his “throne” (a gold-painted chair) and his crown, a thin band of gold. It had a powerful effect on the audience:
Pimlott’s
Richard II
at Stratford’s Other Place is a powerful modern production in a merciless white box. The audience are at the closest quarters with the players in experiencing the “prison” which Samuel West’s Richard compares to the world. West is utterly compelling through every stage of the character’s progress from indecisive monarch, through the pretence of an almost Ophelia-like madness, St. George’s flag wrapped about him, to being “eased with being nothing.” When he enters bearing his coffin like a cross you are also caught up in a passion play about the killing of a king. David Troughton’s Bullingbrook is no reluctant regicide but a hectoring tyrant on the make, a man who insists the audience should get to its feet to endorse his usurpation. 95
Critics commented on “excellent performances from Christopher Saul (a bustling, creepy Northumberland) and David Killick (a shrewd, watchful York)” 96 and Catherine Walker’s “touching” Queen Isabel, 97 and applauded Sue Willmington’s design, which created “a lethal debating chamber” 98 for “a gripping distillation of the pomp and circumstance, disillusion, confusion, and cynicism that now beset the term ‘Englishman.’ ” 99
THE DIRECTOR’S CUT: INTERVIEWS WITH CLAUS PEYMANN AND MICHAEL BOYD
Claus Peymann was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1937. He studied in Hamburg, where he also joined a student theater company, and from 1966 to 1969 he was artistic director of Frankfurt’s Theater am Turm (TAT). In 1971 he directed the world premiere of Peter Handke’s
The Ride Across Lake Constance
at the Berlin Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer, which he founded together with Peter Stein. He has been artistic director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart (1974–79), the Schauspielhaus Bochumer (1979–86), and Burgtheater, Vienna (1986–99). Since 1999 he has been artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble, where he staged his much acclaimed version of
Richard II
(discussed here), translated by Thomas Brasch. The production was awarded with the Berlin Critics’ Award and was invited to the German Theatertreffen as well as many theaters worldwide, from Tokyo to Stratford. In 2010 the staging was taken to Vienna Burgtheater. He is known for producing both classical work and premieres of Austrian dramatists, including plays by Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, Elfride Jelinek, and Peter Turrini.
Michael Boyd was born in Belfast in 1955, educated in London and Edinburgh and completed his
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