Richard II
“A timely, touching, dazzlingly rendered work of art.”
Ashland Daily Tidings on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s theatrical production of Richard II
Finalist for the Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Production
A KING BECOMES A MAN
Richard II is dangerously out of touch with his kingdom. He wastes money, raises taxes to support his lavish lifestyle, plays favorites, and cares more about his vanity than the common good. When Henry Bolingbroke—father of the future Henry V—challenges Richard for the throne, it’s a fight the king can’t win. But in losing his crown he gains far greater things: his humanity and his soul.
Shakespeare’s luminous, poetic masterpiece is the first of four plays that chronicle the House of Lancaster’s rise and the beginning of the Wars of the Roses.
Praise