PC Translations

I was writing at my other blog about enjoying Shakespeare’s Richard II more this year than in previous years when I have taught the play.

As I mentioned there, probably a good part of the reason I enjoyed the play this year was thinking back to when I watched the production of the play that has Fiona Shaw in the lead role. In most other productions of the show, such as the BBC version with Derek Jacobi playing Richard, the differences between Bolingbroke and Richard are emphasized. Richard is played fair haired and a little girly, and Bolingbroke is played as a manly, dark-haired and dark-skinned sort. With Shaw cast in the king’s role, the trick becomes not making the masculine-feminine constrast stand out so much. So Richard and Bolingbroke are both made a bit androgynous in this production, and there is a remarkable resemblance between the two. It raises a layer of the text that seems otherwise somewhat invisible.

I’ve watched 3 versions of Richard II on film, including this one, the BBC version with Jacobi, and Matt Osian’s rather odd modernized version. Shaw, for me, makes the play really fun to watch on film. The others are much less my thing.