‘RII’ is a whittled-down, yet authentic version of ‘Richard II’
Santa Cruz Shakespeare wouldn’t really be SCS if it didn’t have at least one Shakespearean production, yet finding one with a small cast could have been difficult. And because the Shakespeare play would be running in repertoire with “The Agitators,” a thoughtful play but with many comedic touches, the second offering needed to be on the serious side.
Enter “RII,” a whittleddown — yet authentic — version of “Richard II” adapted by Jessica Kubzansky in 2013, fits the bill perfectly.
Many audience members, in fact, will likely be quite grateful that Kubzansky condensed the text by at least a third and excised half of the original characters in her version. (“RII” begins in the original’s fifth act!)
As “RII” opens, Actor A (M.L. Roberts) commands the audience’s attention. “I have no name,” he says simply, sitting at the front of the stage. “Wherefore was I born? I am one people and non-contented.” Sighing, he adds, “I’ll hammer it out.”
Jumping up, Roberts slips into Richard’s royal coat and crown and, just as easily, into his royal role.
What’s immediately apparent to the SCS audience is that Roberts’ voice embodies compassion, caring, at times a world-weariness and always, authenticity.
That asset alone is almost enough to enrapture any audience.
Yet there are two other actors in “RII,” both of whom play so many roles it’s sometimes dizzying to sort them all out. That’s not to say the actors, Paige Lindsey White (Actor B) and SCS Artistic Director Mike Ryan (Actor C), don’t hold their own here. They do, particularly White who performed in the original production of “RII” at the Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena in 2013.
White is definitely up to the task of playing male roles both because of a strong, commanding voice and good physical structure. Besides, it’s become commonplace these days for many plays to use actors of whatever gender to play roles. (Come to think of it, the Bard himself did it long ago in London.)
Nevertheless, unless one is a Shakespearean historian, it’s sometimes difficult for the audience to to keep up with “who’s who” without the advantage of seeing different faces and bodies in each part.
In the program, SCS provides its audiences with a brief explanation of what has happened before “RII” begins — which is certainly a help. King Richard has ordered his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, be murdered by the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray. But now the King’s cousin, the Duke of Hereford (Henry Bolingbroke) has come to court to accuse Mowbray of treason.
As the play opens, the king patiently listens to both Mowbray and Bolingbroke’s accusations and rather high-handedly decides to banish both of them from England — Bolingbroke for 10 years, though Richard later reduces that sentence, and Mowbray for life.
Despite the lifetime banishment, it’s Mowbray who predicts that Bolingbroke will be the one who will someday unseat the king.
After that, it’s a small battle here, some offenses there — and soon there’s a lot of resentment by the British nobility who accuse Richard of wasting England’s money.
But unless you’re a serious student of English nobility and history, it’s best to just sit back and appreciate the workmanlike effort of the three actors, as well as B. Modern’s finely researched costumes (especially the King’s royal purple coat with gold brocade), Rody Ortega’s sometimes-thunderous sounds of battle, occasional wisps of smoke and commanding musical interludes, Dipu Gupta’s useful but utilitarian scenic design and the fine outdoor setting in DeLaveaga Park where, occasionally, a loud airplane will drown out speech for a few seconds.
Director Melissa Rain Anderson does her best to keep the audience’s attention as well, moving action from the king’s throne room to the prison cell and back again many times. And credit Kubzansky with finding a way to illuminate Shakespeare’s primary themes in a way that is more understandable to audiences.
“RII” clocks in at just under two hours including one intermission. Even at that length, it tends to sometimes get tedious. Thank goodness for Roberts’ mesmerizing, melodious voice!