The San Diego Union-Tribune
April 24, 1992
Theater Review:
Ethnic Coloring of Richard II' a Little Off
By WELTON JONES, Theater Critic
"Richard II" almost becomes the Sharks vs. the Jets in the aggressively multicultural Mark Taper Forum production that opened last night.
In this, the first of the eight rich plays spanning the 15th century through the War of the Roses to the Tudor kings, Shakespeare was more interested in the title character than the squabbling factions around him.
However, director Robert Egan, aided by "text editor and collator" Diana Maddox, has forced the focus onto the feuds just beginning to gather momentum. The king and his intimates are cast as white male bullies while the restless Lancaster clan, Richard's eventual conquerors, appear to be a mixture of Asian, Hispanic and African-American actors.
Whatever contemporary relevance this casting device generates is at the cost of the points Shakespeare wishes to make. Richard was the only English King to abdicate the throne, until Edward VIII married for love in 1936, and it was that phenomenon that engaged Shakespeare's main interest, not the roots of the struggle, which was to swashbuckle on through two parts of "Henry IV," "Henry V," three parts of "Henry VI" and "Richard II."
Richard is best seen as a beautiful, spoiled child who gets bad advice and paints himself into a corner. Regal misjudgment, ambitious subjects and poor timing smash him against his Lancaster cousin, Bolingbroke. He must either abdicate or die.
In Shakespeare's universe, that's always the choice for annointed kings.
There is no retirement community for monarchs, which is why the story of Richard II so fascinated Shakespeare and his age, not to mention Queen Elizabeth I, who didn't care for this play at all.
Much of this poignant dilemma is present in the Taper production, especially after Kelsey Grammer has time to establish the nicely contrasted aspects of his Richard. However, the production insists on urging the visual drama of what must be called White Men vs. Others.
There is even a non-Shakespearean scene added to the play by Egan and Maddox, always a risky business. The scene, showing the Duke of Gloucester, Richard's uncle, being murdered, apparently is drawn from an anonymous earlier play titled "Woodstock." Probably, it's supposed to emphasize the gang-war scenario.
The whole gimmick begins to crumble, though, when Richard starts to emerge as the play's tragic soul. Then his vanquisher, the new Henry IV, is pushed aside into stolid silence to clear the stage for Richard's catharsis, and skin pigment becomes irrelevant.
Certainly the acting skills know no color. John Vickery, the only real Shakespearean on the stage, so dominates in two brief roles -- Richard's wronged friend Mowbray and the noble Bishop of Carlilse -- that he threatens the play's balance through sheer talent, but Carlos Carrasco's dark menace works well for the brutal Northumberland, and Jeanne Sakata scores keenly as the Queen's gardener. (Isn't "Asian gardener" a stereotype, though? Maybe not as a female. This show urges such questions. )
Otherwise, the players are clustered in the mediocre zone with Grammer's Richard and the various parts played by Barry Shabaka Henley and Eugene Lee rising slightly above, while Melora Hardin's dim Queen and Armin Shimerman's sullen Duke of York sag below.
Yael Pardess' set is another useful swirl of natural wood and scaffolding.
R. Stephen Hoyes' lighting is logical except for a startling glitzy staircase that would have interested Liberace. Nathan Birnbaum's generic period music is useful and fresh.
Robert Blackman turned out some fine, conservative costumes for this show, except the actors don't wear them. The period wardrobe stays on dressmaker's dummies upstage while the cast works in dark, vaguely military tunics and boots. Then, when somebody is killed, her or his dummy is covered with a veil.
Whatever. Just as "Romeo and Juliet" survived "West Side Story," so will "Richard II" rise above White Men vs. Others.