{"id":1682,"date":"2018-12-19T08:05:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1682"},"modified":"2018-12-19T08:05:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T08:05:53","slug":"propwatch-the-crown-and-buckets-in-richard-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2018\/12\/propwatch-the-crown-and-buckets-in-richard-ii.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the crown and buckets in Richard II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Richard II gives up power \u2013 though it\u2019s not his choice. His cousin Henry Bolingbroke has returned from exile, led a rebellion, become king of the castle. Richard\u2019s toppled monarch is now a dirty rascal. Shakespeare stages this concretely \u2013 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, two buckets on a well. Bolingbroke is currently buoyant with success; his rival sinks in grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown and buckets are virtually the only props in Joe Hill-Gibbons\u2019 vigorous, rigorous and radically reduced staging at the Almeida<\/a>, designed by Ultz with Charlotte Espiner. The crown is a spiky bronzed circle. The buckets (labelled for added utility) hold blood, soil and water, to be thrown with derisive force. The play of power is simplified to this icon of monarchy and the crudest containers. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second<\/em>: the symbol and the slop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some items in this propwatch series are quietly naturalistic. Only as you watch do they assume a wider meaning, a prism through which to see a production. Not the crown and buckets, which have immediately iconic force. They shine and spoil and suggest the unreliable career in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The production begins with Simon Russell Beale hushed and roguish Richard speaking some of the deposed king\u2019s final lines: \u2018I have been studying how I may compare\/ This prison where I live unto the world.\u2019 In its beginning is its end, and we\u2019re cued into a cyclical pattern \u2013 rebellion, response and raging paranoia will be the keynotes of power. It also signals the bold distillation of this staging \u2013 the usual mighty cast (22 in the last RSC production) is here just eight; the three hours of that RSC revival scrunched to 100 minutes. It goes fast \u2013 no one has to wait for trumpets to pipe down or for the attendant lords to stop shuffling before they speak. No pageantry, the minimum of props;as in Richard\u2019s bare cell, this confined space stands for everything \u2013 absolutely every onstage element must be compact with meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The stark crown is pure symbol. It\u2019s power with pointy bits.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hill-Gibbins has form with messing up classics. The Changeling<\/em> descended into a terrifying food fight \u2013 you\u2019ve never seen a scarier use of trifle. A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> sat on an earthy floor \u2013 no one passed through the night unsoiled. These choices have metaphoric pizzazz, but also liberate the actors\u2019 movement, informing the way they run, slip and grapple. In Richard II<\/em>,the schoolroom simplicity of the props is accompanied by a playground approach to politics. Everyone is onstage throughout \u2013 the chorus of courtiers hugs the riveted wall (no doors; no escape), clusters in corners, slinks round the gunmetal grey perimeter to avoid detection or tattletale conspiracy. At various moments everyone rucks together, shouting and flailing like tantrum-prone tots:when this happens around Bolingbroke, you see an exasperated Leo Bill wonder why he struggled for power. Is this the glittering prize? A crown and a heap full of headache?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the poster, the crown is a yellow paper creation with towering points, raggedly cut. It\u2019s very primary school. Aww, Richard isn\u2019t good with scissors but at least he had a go. Some of that childlike vibe remains in the production\u2019s actual eight-pronged crown. Previous Richards have sported jewels and elaborate fluting (Ben Whishaw, Charles Edwards) or looked lost in avast crown (Fiona Shaw), but the stark Almeida crown is pure symbol. It\u2019s power with pointy bits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holinshed\u2019s chronicle, Shakespeare\u2019s source for his history, describes Richard abdicating by placing his signet ring onto Bolingbroke\u2019s finger. Changing that to a crown amplifies the gesture, charges the unwilling transfer of power with drama. \u2018Here cousin,\u2019 Richard says with provoking politeness, \u2018seize<\/em> the crown.\u2019 Seize<\/em> is brilliant. There\u2019s no way Bolingbroke can respond without seeming childish \u2013 seize says you want this too much, seize says you can have it but you don\u2019t deserve it. Russell Beale and Bill\u2019s truculent usurper both hold on tight and refuse to let go, a tug of want which dignity abandoned long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the buckets: there\u2019s no dignity there. They might be prompted by the deathbed reproaches of John of Gaunt (Joseph Mydell),Richard\u2019s uncle and Bolingbroke\u2019s father, who references the earthy ground of the kingdom, the blood that Richard has drained from his family, the seas that lash this sceptred isle. Or, less portentously, from the refuse pails tipped over Richard\u2019s head as he\u2019s processed through London in disgrace. Two buckets each of soil and blood; several more of water. Bill enacts the play\u2019s first killings\u2013 of two royal aides \u2013 by hurling a blood bucket over them. Later, Russell Beale is heaped with dirt, then sluiced with water. Muck in his beard, drips down his t-shirt: he\u2019s a sorry sight. Stark instruments of authority \u2013 is this the best a pre-democratic state can do, gunk\u00a0<\/em>someone? \u2013 they\u2019re oddly forbidding. We know a stage gun won\u2019t kill anyone, but stage water will drench you. The buckets feel more real than the crown. The anxieties of power more real than the prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard II gives up power \u2013 though it\u2019s not his choice. His cousin Henry Bolingbroke has returned from exile, led a rebellion, become king of the castle. Richard\u2019s toppled monarch is now a dirty rascal. Shakespeare stages this concretely \u2013 a crown passed from one to another. The supposed divinity of majesty proves portable as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,250,322,321,574,32,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-almeida","9":"tag-joe-hill-gibbins","10":"tag-props","11":"tag-propwatch","12":"tag-richard-ii","13":"tag-shakespeare","14":"tag-theatre","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}