King Richard
ISTENING to the BBC production of Richard II (from 1YC), my mind went back 15 years to the moving Richard of John Gielgud. His Bolingbroke was vigorously played by a younger actor named Michael Redgrave; and now Mr. Redgrave has himself become King Richard, Some critics would say that he is Mr. Gielgud’s successor, the Hamlet and the Richard de nos jours; and the resemblances and the differences between them are instructive. Both understand very well the complexities of this true king at odds with himself as well as with his kingdom. But Gielgud’s was more the poet in the world of action, a king of shadows always looking for his own face in the glass. Redgrave’s king had _ subtly changed to suit a harsher and soberer generation-heavier, more than man of action, the paragon of a decaying chivalry pitted against a set of political realists, Anthony Quayle was responsible for this stimulating production; and one could well imagine it running on into his Henry IV, as we saw it recently. There, also, Hotspur, another kind of romantic dreamer, takes the stage and is cut down by another realist, who is Bolingbroke’s son.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530508.2.21.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 721, 8 May 1953, Page 10
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195King Richard New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 721, 8 May 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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