Shakespeare, as we all know, served up English history as entertainment and instruction for the Elizabethans. Factual accuracy was subservient to a view of the jungle truths of sovereignty and political ambition that was as uncomfortable and relevant then as it remains today.
The eight major Histories from Richard II to Richard III have been well served by the RSC in recent years. Its millennial sequence began with Samuel West in a wonderfully spare Richard II (directed by the much lamented Steven Pimlott) and concluded with the Henry VIs and Richard III, brilliantly directed by Michael Boyd. This latter tetralogy has become the foundation of the new sequence in the Courtyard Theatre. Boyd is now setting his stamp on all the plays (though playing second fiddle to his associate Richard Twyman in the staging of Henry IV, Part 2).
Shakespeare wrote the historically precedent set of plays from Richard II to Henry V after the earlier set, and it’s in this topsy-turvy order that Boyd is directing them for the stage. We’ve applauded his stagings of the Wars of the Roses and must now watch the clock being put back to their origin in the primeval crime of Bolingbroke’s deposition of Richard II. Whether one should try to make any sense of the eight plays as a whole is an open question. The time for brave spirits to address that will be after Henry V completes the set in October and when all the plays are given in historical sequence over four momentous days next February.
In the meantime, it’s taxing enough coming to terms with a day which began at
10.30 a.m. with Richard II and concluded with the second part of Henry IV over 12 hours later. Although a veteran of many a theatrical marathon, I’m beginning to have my doubts.
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