| Performance details | Venue: The Guildhall, York Dates: 12th - 22nd July 2007 Tickets: 拢10 per production or 拢15 for two Box Office: York Theatre Royal on 01904 623568 or visit their website (link in top right of this page) |
Some big scenes at the heart of the two plays now.听First we look at the end of the first half - a scene of power politics in which Gloucester is framed and then his murder plotted.听Then, we examine the repercussions of this at the start of the second half. These scenes are a turning point in history. Gloucester's death turns the commons against the court, and those who have worked together to plan his downfall now begin to turn on one another.听It marks the time in which Henry starts to become an irrelevance in his own kingdom, and his wife Margaret emerges as a powerful player in her own right.听 The irony is that the scenes themselves are quite long and formal, but the repercussions of them will be years of turmoil and bloodshed.听The trick is to make it clear that at this point, decisions are made that will affect the course of history.听We must establish the turning points that are so pivotal. | "It's seen by us but not by those around her onstage, and he instantly obeys.听She has assumed control absolutely." | |
There is a lovely moment, one which I hadn't planned, and came from something Cecily, who plays Margaret, improvised in rehearsal.听During the scene after Henry has left the throne room, she went and sat in his throne, trying it on for size.听We built this into a moment, where she does so quite deliberately, and her allies line up alongside her, isolating the Duke of York across the stage.听It works well, encapsulating the politics of the moment.听 When Margaret wants the Duke of Suffolk, her lover, to do her bidding later on, she only has to gently caress his arm.听It's seen by us but not by those around her onstage, and he instantly obeys.听She has assumed control absolutely. Last night's rehearsal brought the arrival of Edward and Richard, the duke of York's sons.听They are the future Edward IV and Richard III, so much of the remaining drama is built around their ascendancy, and I want to mark their entrance appropriately.听I've asked Andy to exaggerate his disability in his first scene.听
 | | Rehearsals are going well. |
The other characters haven't seen him for years, so they don't know how weak or strong he really is, and they fatally underestimate him here.听Their ridicule feeds Richard's sense of isolation.听Of course, the joke is on them as they are going to find out he is a very formidable opponent indeed, and not nearly as frail as he looks. I'm also playing with the audience's idea of what Richard III will look like.听We start with the 'poisonous hunchbacked toad' that they are expecting, but then reveal something stronger and more complex.听For this is not yet the Richard of Shakespeare's play, a sociopathic monster.听This is the boy who will grow into that man, and that transformation is one of the most interesting character arcs of the second half. Mark | 
