Production Diaries (4-6) for "Richard II"

Lyn Darnley gives us an inside look at the voice coaching she does with the actors.  It goes without saying that how the actors speak and act Shakespeare is at the thrust of a meaningful, successful production.  We learn that voice isn't just voice: It is physical (breath and muscles), it is emotional (drawn from the play), and it is linguistic (iambic pentameter).

[Jim Shapiro] talks about treason, censorship and seditious material in 'a radioactive play', which was both shocking and highly topical for audiences when it was written, and six years later sparked an uprising. 

Professor Shapiro explains connections between Richard II and the reigning monarch, Elizabeth I, which Elizabeth herself, then a childless and ageing monarch, saw all too clearly. Like Richard, she had problems with Ireland, taxed her people and had no heir.

I can only imagine what a playwright, a repertory, and their producers or benefactors have to go through to stage what was clearly a politically combustible play.  So the struggle for national identity that director Greg Doran relates wasn't just historical (14th century) but also contemporary (16th and 17th centuries).

'There aren't many things that we can't turn our hands to here,' [Alistair McArthur] says. And the team prove it as they talk through design, fittings, sleeve adjustments, velvet breastplates and travel-crowns. 

Alistair leads a tour of the costume department, through painting and dyeing, on to footwear and armoury and finally into the hats and jewellery team. Everyone is busy working on the outfits that our company will wear in the performances. With plenty of last minute changes and refinements it is an interesting time for our costume department.

I bet that a director's decision to stage a period piece, versus a modern day one, is partly influenced by the challenges of costume and the corresponding budget.  McArthur gives us a good glimpse of the complexity and pressure of outfitting Richard II and company, and all of this must have taken quite a lot of talent, resources and cash.