Before I get into the performance itself, a few things about the protests around the production. The estimable Dr. Peter Kirwan, Shakespeare-in-performance blogger extraordinaire, has an excellent pair of posts around first, the protests (and the atmosphere they created), and second, the art. Around the former topic, my brief thoughts are:
1. The occupation of Palestine is inhumane and atrocious.
I had a whole (late) post written up yesterday about Yohangza’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and how it was my favourite play of the Globe to Globe festival by a mile, but then Ashtar Theatre’s Richard II came along and blew Yohangza out of the water.
Photo (c) Rajha Shakiry
I may be a bit biased because I love the histories, but I’m pretty sure this is an incredible production no matter how you feel about Shakespeare’s “King Name + Number” plays. Although Richard II has never been one of my favourites in that sub-category, it’s slowly creeping up the leaderboard the more time I spend with it.
