At the end of January, after going to see the RSC’s Cycle of Kings at the Barbican I decided I wanted to complete a sketchbook and a large scale illustration inspired by Shakespeare’s plays Richard II, Henry IV part 1 & 2, and Henry V. This is a (very geeky) extract from my blog about the whole process - which you can read in full here!
Firstly, I needed to choose which animal was going to represent each King. Richard II’s emblem was the White Hart and I think the image of a Stag suits Richard – tall, slight, stately, rather decorative. And importantly, the Deer is a prey animal, something that was hunted and killed. The choice for Henry V was obviously always going to be a lion. It was too famous an association to ignore, and it’s an image all over his flags/armour usually. “Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood.” Henry IV was the one I had the most trouble with. He needed to be something practical, something fairly solid, but not too regal (that was my feeling anyway). In the end I chose a Bloodhound, as these were traditionally used in the hunting of stags, and had that slightly uncompromising, military aspect.
Very early in the play, Richard II, the Duchess of Gloucester makes a passionate speech to John of Gaunt and uses the metaphor of a tree to link the royal family together. “Edward’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one, Were as seven vials of his sacred blood, Or seven fair branches springing from one root” I really liked this image – and really it’s quite pivotal to the idea of who everybody is, how they’re all related, and later the Wars of the Roses – so I tried to bring it into my ideas. There are seven tines to Richard’s antlers, and a silhouetted tree with seven branches forms the background of the illustration.
The contrast between the three Kings was also important to me. Richard alone wears a crown. I wanted the ‘usurper’ King Henry and his son to remain bare-headed to reflect their questionable claim to the throne, their lack of ‘divine right’, and to reference the quote “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” from Henry IV part 2. Richard is also depicted holding a mirror, rather than sword or sceptre, to reflect his vanity and lack of military success, as well as his preoccupation with the idea of what makes him a King rather than an ordinary man. “For there it is, cracked in an hundred shivers.”
The idea of contrasting levels, high and low, (mentioned a lot throughout the tetralogy) was also something I wanted to include. Richard is sitting upon the ground, partly in reference to the famous “for God’s sake let us sit upon the ground” moment, but also because of the way he refers to Bolingbroke (Henry IV) ascending as he himself is brought down, be it the metaphor of the buckets in a well, or the cares that come with the crown. “That bucket down and full of tears am I, Drinking my griefs whilst you mount up on high.” I wanted Henry IV to be sat upon the throne himself. I hoped to convey the feeling that once he’d won it, he would be loathe to ever leave it again, for fear someone would steal it away from him once more (as indeed Hotspur and his band of rebels try to do in part one). He lectures Hal about the dangers of being seen too much by the common people and I see Henry IV as a King who would shut himself up in the throne room for days at a time, very concerned that his conduct was always judged to be that of a King.
Finally, Henry V stands upright on the field of battle, clearly a warrior as well as a King. However, a dead crow lies at his feet alongside the skull of a Deer. One of my favourite little moments of Henry V is when he says; “Not today, O Lord, O not today, think not upon the fault My Father made in compassing the crown!” The shadow of Richard’s deposition and murder are ever-present in the plays and I tried to show that even Henry V – the ‘star of England‘ – was still haunted by death, and doubts over the validity of his claim to the throne.There’s quite a few other little things in there but I could quite literally ramble on all day, and no one wants that, so I’ll maybe leave some parts unexplained, with an air of ambiguity (it’s nice to try and pretend to be mysterious every once in a while).I really enjoyed working on this project and plan to do three smaller front-facing portraits to go with it, as well as finishing off what’s left of my sketchbook.
This coming Saturday is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death! Not sure what Shakespeare play you should see or read to commemorate the occasion? No worries! I’ve put together a little flowchart to help you make up your mind.
The country seems to be finally at peace under the rule of Edward IV and the House of York. However, a new threat emerges from within the King’s own family, as his ruthless younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Benedict Cumberbatch), sets plans in motion to take the throne for himself. Beginning by arranging the imprisonment of unsuspecting middle brother George, Richard manipulates and murders all who stand in his way. As he rises in power, the Duke of Richmond raises an army to overthrow him, leading to the final battle of the Wars of the Roses.
Richard III has always been one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. More accessible than most it’s a rip roaring tale of dastardly deeds with a gleefully evil villain at its centre who will stop at nothing to secure his place on the throne.
The only surprise is that given the enduring popularity of the play and indeed Netflix’s remake of House of Cards (which is of course just Richard III in the world of US politics) that it has taken the BBC this long to commission a new screen adaptation.
This adaptation sets the tone from the very first frame as a shirtless, glowering Benedict Cumberbatch (sporting a prosthetic hump to mimic Richard’s supposed deformity) plays chess with himself while delivering the famous “winter of our discontent” speech. It’s a gloriously sinister beginning as a bitter Richard dripping acid with every syllable spits out his unhappiness at being under-appreciated and cast aside by his family. As he is not loved he is determined to “prove a villain.” When adapting Shakespeare for the screen it’s always a tricky decision as to just who the characters are addressing when they start to soliloquise - there’s no audience sat right in front of the actors to talk to as there would be in the theatre. Richard III takes the approach of having Benedict soliloquise straight to the camera, nodding and winking to us throughout, making us as the audience feel that we are complicit from the start in his misdeeds. The little wink to the camera as Richard skilfully manipulates his poor doomed brother Clarence into believing that he is truly on his side is both highly vicious and wildly entertaining.
Benedict Cumberbatch is clearly having the absolute time of his life as Richard. His eternally black clad Richard is gleefully malevolent, silkily venomous and completely amoral. He’s an absolute delight to watch, delivering his speeches with obvious relish. The play has always been darkly funny and Benedict brings that out capturing the pitch black humour in Richard’s lines. Richard III is a brilliant character because, despite his tendency to massacre anyone who stands in his way (friends, his brother, his wife, small defenceless children…) he’s so much more entertaining than any other character in the play that despite his truly appalling actions you simply can’t help but root for him. Especially when you see the profound disdain that his mother (played by the titan of acting that is Dame Judi Dench) has for him.
No actor playing Richard has ever been able to make me buy the painfully sexist sequence where he successfully and completely effortlessly seduces Anne (the wife of the man he brutally murdered) over her husband’s grave. But Benedict gives it the old college try using his best puppy dog eyes and softly spoken manner to woo poor Anne into being his (pitifully short lived) bride. For much of the first half it’s darkly entertaining to watch the chess pieces fall one by one as Richard skilfully manoeuvres his way to the crown.
Of course as the series has shown the crown weighs heavy and no sooner has Richard been crowned than he goes completely to pieces. Benedict is deeply unsettling as the paranoid, twitchy King Richard, haunted by Queen Margaret’s curse. He terrifies the life out of his courtiers, doling out death sentences in strained whispers, dismissing Buckingham with a hissed “I’m not in the giving mood today” and staring into the middle distance at horrors they cannot see. The murder of the princes in the Tower of London, soundtracked by Richard tapping out a relentless drum beat with his fingers is haunting. His final soliloquy as he lies a wreck of a man, drenched in sweat, wracked by his guilty conscious is beautifully delivered as he concedes that he is a murderer that will not be mourned. Richard III is a gift of a part for an actor and Benedict plays the hell out of it. It’s glorious to watch.
It’s not a one man show though as Benedict is very capably aided by an illustrious and excellent cast. James Fleet brings a lump to the throat as the naive (and easily dispatched) Hastings. Ben Daniels is fantastic as Buckingham particularly in my absolutely favourite scene in the play where Buckingham has to “convince” Richard (who has squirrelled himself away in “prayer”) to take the throne. It’s such an entertaining scene and Daniels is masterful throughout. You can’t help but feel for him as you see the look of dawning dread in his eyes as he watches Richard visibly withdraw from him the second he has precisely what he wants.
Keeley Hawes (who has become quite the acting power house in the past couple of years) is beautifully understated as the Queen - grieving not only the loss of her husband and brother but also her two sons. Judi Dench is Judi Dench - she’s extraordinary in everything and that doesn’t change here. Benedict and Judi play beautifully off each other. Luke Treadaway as Henry Tudor doesn’t have a great deal to do other than sound noble and look fetching in uniform and show up at the end to vanquish Richard (slaughtering him not in some beautiful battle sequence but rather fittingly in a grubby skirmish as they wrestle on the ground of a mud logged field). Finally Sophie Okonedo (who must have the BAFTA nomination in the bag) dominates proceedings as Queen Margaret. In other adaptations I’ve always found Margaret to be a profoundly annoying character - a haggard witch type creature who shows up to curse the remaining members of the House of York before popping up later in the tale to basically say “I told you so” to everyone. Here though Margaret is wrath & vengeance in human form. Bedraggled, full of despair but unbent she paints an other worldly figure. Her curse dogs Richard’s every moment. He is haunted by her at every turn, her mirror showing him his true nature. It’s a sublime turn and she’s gifted with an extraordinary final shot - Margaret stood on a muddy field in England surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of bodies - the human cost of The War of the Roses.
Richard III showcases the BBC at its very very best. It’s a cracking, accessible adaptation of a brilliant play, beautifully shot and performed by a cast to die for of which Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Okonedo are the standouts. Extraordinary, exciting, wonderful television which should remind everyone at a time when the BBC is under constant threat that you can keep your US networks and your streaming services, when it comes to it the BBC makes some of the best television in the world.
