Do3 16 April: Richard II

[french frank]

Featuring Joel MacCormack as Richard, Geoffrey Streatfeild as Bolingbroke, John Rowe as John of Gaunt and Philip Jackson as the Duke of York:

"This is the first recording of a Shakespeare play to be broadcast in binaural sound. The production has been recorded using a pioneering 3D microphone set-up: listen with headphones for an enhanced experience which highlights Richard II's subjective world view."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08md9zj

Just a tiny bit good, wouldn't you say?

[Stanley Stewart]

Yes, indeed. An instant diary note.

Queen: "This way the king will come;
this is the way to Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower..." Act V, ScI

[french frank]

Didn't know the name of Joel MacCormack so had to Google. Richard died aged 33 and Mr MacCormack seems young for the part. He does seem to have done quite a bit of Shakespeare though, so let's hope for a good 'poetic' performance.

[french frank]

Richard II tonight at 9pm.

[BBMmk2]

Another of the Bard's stories of an ancestor! RII, I don't is performed very often?

[DracoM]

Will catch up tomorrow.

[french frank]

This kept me engrossed for the whole 2 hours+. An important part of radio drama is the sound it makes: this was slightly Olivieresque with its incidental music, and the production was distinctly no gimmicks. The verse … I've heard the verse better delivered but this performance was - for me - completely acceptable.

Joel MacCormack sounded young among the tougher noblemen, not shrill but teenager petulant at times rather than commanding - even as he was declaring himself to be the all-powerful monarch that he wasn't. Moments of real pathos (helped by quite a good script!) and John Rowe's John of Gaunt speech touchingly old and tired. On headphones the binaural sound had nice effects: at times Richard was speaking at a normal level, but the effect was that he was at a distance from the others as he spoke his thoughts. I'll give this another listen .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh. I found the verse delivery rather ... "forced"? "affected"? "self-conscious"? It certainly jarred for me, and (whilst I prefer that to productions where the metre is completely ignored - perhaps especially in this play) got between me and my enjoyment of the production. And when Joe Grundy came on to talk about his apricocks ....

[french frank]

Oh. I found the verse delivery rather ... "forced"? "affected"? "self-conscious"?

I was being a little kind - at times there was a brief hesitation at the end of a line - followed by an emphasis on the the first word of the next, to show the meaning carried over. Not an entirely successful technique … Overall, not as lyrical as it might have been (which is what I was trying to suggest!) but it really didn't affect my enjoyment.

Was it Joe Grundy? Or a soundalike? I don't think I would have caught that …

[DracoM]

Oh. I found the verse delivery rather ... "forced"? "affected"? "self-conscious"? It certainly jarred for me, and (whilst I prefer that to productions where the metre is completely ignored - perhaps especially in this play) got between me and my enjoyment of the production. And when Joe Grundy came on to talk about his apricocks ....

I'm afraid I'm with ferney on this.
McCormack sounded as if he was trying a tad OTT to be haughtily regal and then broken - a bit as if he was ticking off the character boxes as he went. Compared to Ben Wishaw, or way back, David William in TV 'Age of Kings', a bit wooden.

That said, this is a notoriously difficult Shak script to bring off on RADIO without all the visual trappings of kingship and then the stripping of it, and then the solitary confinement / impoverishment / madness in the story. VERY hard not to make R2's self-pity mere teen whingeing. Not sure this R2 managed to avoid that.

[french frank]

I'm afraid I'm with ferney on this.

I'll be listening again. I'm not sure that it was Richard that I had the most doubts about: I heard it as part of the characterisation in his case. If that means a bit of an effort on the part of the listener, so be it. But I'm afraid that the speaking of Shakespearean blank verse is a bit of a lost art.

I wonder what Stanley Stewart will make of it?

One thing it didn't have and which I really do hate is the real fruity, declamatory style. I've heard Gaunt's speech delivered in that 'noble' way and much preferred this version.

[Conchis]

I've never been convinced by the way Richard spends most of the play introspectively bemoaning his fate, then suddenly become an 'action hero' right at the end.

[Stanley Stewart]

A deeply satisfying two hours + traffic of our stage for me! Sat in an armchair, side light only, after making a pact with myself not to anticipate or mentally respond to the lines in any way but to follow Rumour's entreaty, Henry IV, Pt II, and 'open my ears' to the enticing level of sound and effects in this broadcast using binaural sound, most effective even without headphones.

I, too, despair at the use of declamatory tones and, in particular, BBC drama, where there was a tendency to stereotype character by projection for far too long. There has been a gradual improvement over several decades and for me the craft lies in lowering the level from, say, reaching the Upper Circle in a large auditorium to a more personal 1 - 1 level, fostering a release
of energy in compensation; pace, not race, of course - and it works a treat in longer narrative.
The internecine squabbling throughout Richard II from the opening Lists at Coventry to the deposition scenes all gained by clarity and variation of pace.

I smile as I recall the wit and wisdom of Clifford Turner, voice teacher at the RADA, and his insistence on clarity of enunciation in the theatre but also recall that fellow students, Simon Ward, Martin Jarvis and John Rowe - a splendid John o' Gaunt last night - were also members of the National Youth Theatre, headed by the remarkable Michael Croft who also made students welcome at his rehearsals and how he preferred simplicity as a safe route to clarity in performance. Incidentally, I also recall Simon Ward mining the contrasted temperament of Richard II with much promise.

My first experience of the History Plays was at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1951 - Festival of Britain year - with Michael Redgrave as Richard II, perhaps a bit too old, but an actor of presence, already steeped in the principles of Stanislavsky, using the merit sublimation in performance. A young actor, Richard Burton, played Prince Hal, a star in the making, later opted
for filthy lucre in Hollywood!

A few years later, John Neville, triumphed at the Old Vic, a stylish performer, in the Gielgud vein, speaking of which I musn't forget Gielgud's Ages of Man, solo performance which re-opened the Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, in 1959 - I still have the subsequent LP recording as a master class in vocal skill. The deposition scene was cleverly adapted with a knock-out force and I sat in the gods at several performances trying to understand the momentum he sustained. Years later, 1969, after seven years in rep, I got a phone call from my Agent asking me to meet Sir John at the Lyric Theatre where he was playing in a Peter Shaffer play and was seeking an understudy as his stand-in as the Caliph for a TV production of Flecker's, Hassan, and, as he would have to leave early for evening performances, or be absent during matinees, he wanted an actor who could read fluently opposite Ralph Richardson. No question of my playing, of course, as the Beeb would claim if JG was indisposed. Three weeks of sheer pleasure, although the juv leads, Corin Redgrave and Nyree Dawn-Porter would 'corpse' if I hit a Gielgud tone in my reading. JG also invited me to join him each day at the coffee break, along with 'Rafe'! I dined out for months on the JG/RR anecdotes. He could be outrageously bawdy, although he took the trouble to open a few West End doors which were closed to me at the time.

Back on topic. I would certainly add Jack May, B'Ham rep, to my roster of watchable Richard IIs, along wih Paul Scofield at a Lyric, Hammersmith season, 1953. Perhaps the most rounded performance must go to Ian McKellen at the Mermaid Theatre, 1969. He played Richard II in a repertoire of Edward II, two staggeringly accomplished performances which linger in the memory.

[french frank]

A few years later, John Neville, triumphed at the Old Vic, a stylish performer, in the Gielgud vein,

I was teenager at school when John Neville came to the Hippodrome, touring with the Old Vic in the play. Still a dim memory of a wonderful performance, though not to be used as the model for all subsequent performances. I liked MacCormack's emotionally immature Richard who grows older and a bit wiser before the end.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was being a little kind - at times there was a brief hesitation at the end of a line - followed by an emphasis on the the first word of the next, to show the meaning carried over. Not an entirely successful technique … Overall, not as lyrical as it might have been (which is what I was trying to suggest!) but it really didn't affect my enjoyment.

I ought, perhaps, to have been a little more more than kin myself

Was it Joe Grundy? Or a soundalike? I don't think I would have caught that …

I don't think that it was the same actor (the website doesn't credit him - any more than I did) - but it was that rather odd "all-purpose country bumpkin from Mummerset" that I thought had been confined to sketch-show parodies ... and The Archers (if that's not the same thing).