To the Church… on Friday evening. Steady the buffers, Jase. It takes quite a lot to actually get me inside the church. Thankfully I remained on the outside for the evening’s entertainment.
On the agenda was the Weird Wiv Shakespeare Company and their summer performance of Richard II. This can be a tricky text. It all gets lost in the mix for me: historical plays, tragedies, comedy.
No worries. A quick shifty online the night before and we watched a five minute YouTube catch-up of the plot. It was animated and mixed in Jacobean costume with Roman figures. I fear the content was purely straight out of the confused mind of an AI machine. It didn’t really help me in trying to prepare for what was to follow.
We rocked up outside the church, surprisingly on time for once. We were greeted by the very friendly front-of-house staff. I was tarted up. But OF COURSE I was tarted up. I’m always tarted up.
One of the front-of-house team joked (I think?) that I would fit in well. My choice of attire for the evening was of a similar theme for the cast. Oh dear.
The setting was just perfect. The main stage was set up within one corner of the two church walls. There were two lighting towers for later on during the performance.
The chattering and excitement ahead of the performance soon died down, and then we were straight in ass a rather Withnail inspired Richard started to pounce around and hold centre court. He was bloody ace.
The costume observation was spot on. It was still early evening sunlight. I was hoping for a rapid shift towards sunset to help disguise my costume clash. Talk about immersive theatre etc. Even some of the main characters had tattoo sleeves.
The YouTube video beforehand was so so. It certainly helped me to follow the general thrust of the play. As ever with Shakespeare, I just sit back and take in the language and some of the interpersonal battles taking place.
I don’t think I was alone in rooting for Harry of Bolingbroke from the start. It was all going rather well for the protagonist character until it was let slip that he was also the Earl of Derby. I had some Pavlovian desire to stand up and shout out some obscenities towards him.
The performances by a very local cast were superb. This was a very professional production, albeit put on by amateurs.
As well as Bolingbroke, there were some strong performances from King Richard as well as Jon of Gaunt. My penny-pinching ways meant I didn’t extend to buying a programme to give local people a name check, but you know who you are. All the cast was spot-on.
The complexities of the plot were even followed, despite the sound of a couple munching rather heavily behind us. If anything it added to the suspense of the evening.
SHOUT OUT to the local dog walker who decided to parade his bonzo right through the churchyard mid-performance, oblivious to what was taking place around him.
A brief interval followed. We had a leg stretch. We turned a blind eye when we caught one of the cast members having a crafty fag at the back of the church. It was well deserved.
And then the final part of the play was an absolute romp. King Richard descended from Withnail comedy to Withnail tragedy. Bolingbroke bounced around and was boisterous, cocksure in that the kingdom was his.
I don’t think I was alone in noticing the symbolism of a King of the North seizing power from some poncey twat down in the south.
A spectacular evening.
