Richard II gives up power – though it’s not his choice. His cousin Henry Bolingbroke has returned from exile, led a rebellion, become king of the castle. Richard’s toppled monarch is now a dirty rascal. Shakespeare stages this concretely – a crown passed from one to another. The supposed divinity of majesty proves portable as a party hat. Richard, as often, reaches for an arresting metaphor: here, … [Read more...]
Funny or die
What makes a comedy? Perspective. Ask Shakespeare’s Malvolia, Titania, or Andrew Aguecheek if they’re living in a comedy and they’ll gaze at you with tear-stained incredulity. Publicly shamed, sexually humiliated, drugged and tricked into – oh yes – public sex with a donkey. Oh, how they laugh. Whether we laugh – or whether we’re encouraged to do so – depends on the production. Perhaps we … [Read more...]
Come for the sex dolls, stay for the protest
The Young Vic is calf deep in sex dolls. Tacky plastic fake-flesh spills over the stage as Measure for Measure begins, a ‘huge peach heap of vinyl orifices,’ as critic Natasha Tripney wrote. Mouths agape, legs akimbo, pneumatic and tumescent, it’s a prospect of everready rut. Officials pick their way gingerly through them: the deputy Angelo (Paul Ready) raising his bible to avoid … [Read more...]