Richard II
1982: William Woodman

This is part of a collection of nine plays released under the title “The Plays of William Shakespeare”. As noted elsewhere, this seems an overly ambitious title for a collection of only nine, but be that as it may, the producers’ avowed aim was two-fold: to stage the plays “as originally seen in the sixteenth century”, and to render them accessible to students without strange accents (whatever those might be). They are typically produced with relatively good actors — though showing a distinct preference for those with Hollywood name-recognition; the rest of the production (sets, music, etc.) is typically minimal.

This one, starring David Birney — a variably interesting production, with some outstanding moments. It preserves the farcical scene in which everyone is challenging everyone else to a duel, unlike most of the other productions. That scene seems (among other things) to be a kind of manic and chaotic echo of the first scene of the play, and so perhaps is more important than most producers or directors think it is.

Birney’s performance is committed and in no way really defective, and the shape of the play remains intact under this handling. At the same time, he does not bring the kind of complexity and nuance one can find in the performances of Derek Jacobi, David Tennant, or Ben Whishaw.

That being said, I think this version is genuinely worth seeing, if you don’t have to go too far out of your way to do so. I wouldn’t short any of the other really good ones to do so, however.

Buy Richard II from Amazon.