Tabling: Richard II Act V

This week Sam Gibbs, Ellyn Heald, Sam Gilroy, Nicholas Koy Santillo, Samantha Blinn & Ariana Karp discuss:

  • The prison speech as the final step in the metamorphosis of Richard's character, it is one of only two soliloquies in this play.
  • The character of Exton as an enigma at the end of the play. 
  • The strangeness of having an action sequence at the end of the play, it is the one moment that Richard pushes through his interiority through external violence. 
  • Metaphysical poetry and metaphor in Richard's prison speech
  • The scene with York, Duchess of York and Aumerle…how often to we get an entire family in Shakespeare?!? 
  • Ultimately the instability of identity in Richard II and how that connects to the meta-theatrical subversion of 'playing a role'
Production image from Michael Boyd's 2007 RSC production. Jonathan Slinger as Richard II in a literal cleansing shower of dust. 

Production image from Michael Boyd's 2007 RSC production. Jonathan Slinger as Richard II in a literal cleansing shower of dust.