After almost two years, the Bridge Theatre again plays host to an opening night as the continued extensions to the run of Guys and Dolls saw the producing house seek commercial refuse in the success of Nicholas Hytner’s production of Frank Loesser’s classic musical. It returns with star power as Jonathan Bailey, of Bridgerton and Wicked fame, takes on the title role in William Shakespeare’s Richard II. It marks the theatre’s seventh production in a row with Hytner in the director’s chair – well, it’s his theatre, after all.
We open with Richard in modern dress at his desk attending to matters of state in Bob Crowley’s stripped-back staging. His cousin Bullingbroke (Royce Pierreson) has accused Mowbray (Phoenix Di Sebastiani) of treason as Mowbray offers accusations in return. A fight is organised to settle the matter until Richard steps in and banishes both men instead – Bullingbroke for six years, Mowbray forever – before heading himself to fight an unaffordable war in Ireland, having first treated himself to the lands of Bullingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, to fund the expedition. That decision drives Bullingbroke to return to England to reclaim his rightful inheritance.
Despite a thrilling opening act, the play loses momentum after the interval. With the king now (for all intents and purposes) desposed, we open with Bullingbroke at the same desk seeing to matters of state – or rather, dealing with the fallout from his ascension. The two kings’ mental battle in the famous deposition scene demands attention, each clasping to the hollow crown – a war without blows.
But there is slightly too much noise surrounding it as Shakespeare inserts a conspiracy subplot that doesn’t have enough time to make an impact and then spends too long tying up loose ends – it begins to feel its 2-hour 45-minute running time towards its conclusion. Joe Hill-Gibbins’ 2018 production at the Almeida with Simon Russell Beale went too far in paring the text down to a 100-minute sprint – Hytner’s production could do with an admittedly less liberal edit. Meanwhile, Grant Oldings’ compositions lean heavily on the suspenseful motifs of television or cinematic thrillers but are too often melodramatic, having the opposite effect of what is intended by drawing us out of the action.
In the cast, Pierreson’s blunt Bullingbroke quickly learns the lesson his successor failed to as he adapts to power while Michael Simkins is impressive as the Duke of York who, in being compelled to manage the country’s affairs as it slips towards rebellion in Richard’s absence, is like the nation’s grumpy grandfather, begrudgingly forced to leave his gardening to take up some unwanted task in the house.
But it’s the star’s show and Bailey is scintillating as a king on the edge, caught between challenging or capitulating to Bullingbrook. One moment a strutting, cocaine-sniffing sovereign, the next shrinking into despair as his grasp on power slips further out of reach and is gone.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (Very good)
