RSC All New Seasons

Not sure. These two were programmed pre-Covid at which point they were supposedly a reduction of all 3 plays. That might have changed now.

It does look it is only Parts I & II, in SuA next Saturday for both, gave Much Ado a miss and my first trip of only two this year.

Also going to the pre-show morning talk so a long day especially as there are other events to celebrate Will’s birthday on as well to fill the gaps.


Bit of a Shakespeare weekend as will be at the Globe Fri evening for the first evening of their summer season.

I read the Lawson review and wondered if he had actually been to see the productions. There was so little engagement with the specifics. Billington would never have written something so empty of critical content.

Greg Doran is retiring from RSC today . Gonna do Richard II and other stuff as Emeritus.

This move by Doran is simply formalising the current situation with Whyman moving from acting AD to AD. I bet they don’t even run a recruitment process to replace Doran, even if they do she’ll get the job.

Oh, thanks for the info. Still think she'll get the job though. I wonder who'll apply ?  

Yes I saw the Times reviews too, 3*/4*. I was simply doubting that this was one of the greatest productions Lawson had ever seen in his life and so worthy of 5*, I mean how many 5* productions does one see ? "Summerfolk" obviously, but beyond that ?  

There is a thread over in General now for the RSC AD selection ideas so please see that. Continue here with news, comments on the new season, the History plays etc.

Rebellion and The Wars of the Roses aka Henry VI parts 2 & 3 : well, that’s better, walking out at 10.45 into a very chilly night, having spent the afternoon and evening with this chunk of drama and English history. Better because these are good productions ( hallelujah) with some very promising performances. W/R just a tad better that R, W/R being a play with more light and shade. There is filming live and projection onto a grey backdrop, better than it sounds, which gives the productions a modern twist but also allows more depth of vision than without. For example, we see close up the face of the dying Warwick as he lies on the ground. It sounds gimmicky but it isn’t. Personal favourites are Oliver Alvin-Wilson who plays York, strong stage presence and manages to convey some complexity of character and Arthur Hughes who plays Richard the son of York, RIII to be. A star is born, he is really very good. He grooves into being what he becomes and is not afraid of this massive iconic part. Looking forward to RIII very much now. So guys, hove up to Stratford and enjoy.

I don’t know how well the Henries have been selling, but what put my friend and me off was very few dates with both plays in one day. With only one theatre open, I wonder they don’t try a few days where they have an extra matinee on a Monday, Friday or Sunday? The scheduling doesn’t seem designed to make it easy to see both plays in one trip. But maybe their audience demographic is largely local and/or retired and/or wealthy, so don’t have to worry about journey times, annual leave and cost of hotels.

The main reason they won't put on extra matinees is simply that the tourists haven't yet really returned to Stratford. It's unfortunate that so few of the matinee days they do have don't really do the obvious of part 2 in the afternoon and part 3 in the evening but I can certainly understand why they don't have more - last Friday, the day before the birthday celebrations weekend, the main house was notably not full. And Stratford itself looks dead. Bit better on the Saturday, but mostly it seemed people from the area coming out for the day (the RSC was full in the evening).

As for the plays themselves, I think I preferred Rebellion. Bit less of the oh another battle followed by long speaches followed by another battle. You do need to have some basic understanding of who everyone is though to follow the court intrigue. The standout performance though is definitely Arthur Hughes as Richard in part 3. I had low expectations of this going in (the HVI plays are amongst my least favourite of Shakepeare's simply because they lack the finesse of his later work), but they are worth seeing. The use of the video projections onto the curtain screen works well for the most part too in keeping you on track with what is happening. There are only a few misfires there which distract. And I think it benefits from the very simple staging (which seemed to get up some newspaper critics noses).

What is also odd is that they're finishing the two Henry VI plays before Richard III opens. It would make more sense to overlap the runs and do some weekends when you could see all three. That would make it slightly more appealing to take on the cost and inconvenience of travelling to Stratford. But maybe apart from Richard it is an entirely new cast for Richard III ? 

It adds a lot to Richard III to have seen the Henry VI backstory, in fact I don't think I've ever seen the Henry VI plays when they weren't integrated with Richard III.