I read Richard II in college and wasn't impressed with the king. Then I saw Derek Jacobi in The Shakespeare Plays (? British effort in late 1970s or so; I think they filmed all the plays).
Jacobi showed me that Richard wasn't just a spoiled brat-- he's been king since he was about nine years old, and nobody ever taught him that there are some things even a king isn't allowed to do. We need money; Bolingbroke is exiled and not using his lands, so we'll take them. He doesn't understand Bolingbroke's outrage, or why other nobles would back B up. Being king is all he's got, it's the only way he can define himself, so when he's faced with losing that, he falls apart.
Jacobi also gave me my best suspension-of-disbelief moment in the theater when he played Alan Turing in "Breaking the Code" at the Kennedy Center. SPOILER ALERT When Turing bit into the poisoned apple, my hand flew out towards him, wanting to stop him.
Yes, anyone who can play Claudius from teens to old age, and Cyrano, and Benedick, and Hamlet, and Richard II, and quite a few other things, can be trusted.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterfish
no subject
Date: 2013-10-06 03:26 am (UTC)Jacobi showed me that Richard wasn't just a spoiled brat-- he's been king since he was about nine years old, and nobody ever taught him that there are some things even a king isn't allowed to do. We need money; Bolingbroke is exiled and not using his lands, so we'll take them. He doesn't understand Bolingbroke's outrage, or why other nobles would back B up. Being king is all he's got, it's the only way he can define himself, so when he's faced with losing that, he falls apart.
Jacobi also gave me my best suspension-of-disbelief moment in the theater when he played Alan Turing in "Breaking the Code" at the Kennedy Center. SPOILER ALERT When Turing bit into the poisoned apple, my hand flew out towards him, wanting to stop him.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-06 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-07 12:38 am (UTC)Yes, anyone who can play Claudius from teens to old age, and Cyrano, and Benedick, and Hamlet, and Richard II, and quite a few other things, can be trusted.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-07 01:28 am (UTC)For gay people, it presumably is...
no subject
Date: 2013-10-07 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-07 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-06 05:16 am (UTC)