Watching (or listening to) Shakespeare as a 21st century American forces you to think about language — how it works, what it does, how it sounds to ears, how our brains adjust to process meaning — and that’s how they wrapped tonight’s Richard II episode: by talking about language, and what it is to deliver Shakespeare through Black American voices.
I don’t have a lot of thoughts on that, specifically. But it’s notable that Richard II (in contrast to most if not all of Shakespeare’s other plays) is entirely in verse, without any comic interludes. There’s an urgency to that choice, kind of a demand that we take this seriously as if it’s about the balance of the universe, just as it’s about the balance of the lines, the rhythm, the rhyme.
And of course, that’s what happens in the play: two sides, alike in many ways, Richard and Bolingbroke, are weighing who truly “owns” the world, and thus, by default, who should rule it. (Bolingbroke says he’s just back for his stuff, but everyone seems to know where this is going.) And Richard’s claim is that the divine right of kings, bestowed by God upon him, supersedes both human will and (in this case) just punishment for his actions. That presumption sounds familiar in some ways to our ears and foreign in others; having these actors and their specific accents and speech patterns reenacting the story makes it feel even more contemporary.
Finally: it brings me immense pleasure to have a character named “Bushy.” I am sorry to see him go.
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If you missed the first two Richard II episodes live on WNYC, you can listen to them as a podcast in your app of choice (links here). You can listen live at 8pm ET tomorrow at WNYC’s website.
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"Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes / But presently prevent the ways to wail."
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Watching (or listening to) Shakespeare as a 21st century American forces you to think about language — how it works, what it does, how it sounds to ears, how our brains adjust to process meaning — and that’s how they wrapped tonight’s Richard II episode: by talking about language, and what it is to deliver Shakespeare through Black American voices.
I don’t have a lot of thoughts on that, specifically. But it’s notable that Richard II (in contrast to most if not all of Shakespeare’s other plays) is entirely in verse, without any comic interludes. There’s an urgency to that choice, kind of a demand that we take this seriously as if it’s about the balance of the universe, just as it’s about the balance of the lines, the rhythm, the rhyme.
And of course, that’s what happens in the play: two sides, alike in many ways, Richard and Bolingbroke, are weighing who truly “owns” the world, and thus, by default, who should rule it. (Bolingbroke says he’s just back for his stuff, but everyone seems to know where this is going.) And Richard’s claim is that the divine right of kings, bestowed by God upon him, supersedes both human will and (in this case) just punishment for his actions. That presumption sounds familiar in some ways to our ears and foreign in others; having these actors and their specific accents and speech patterns reenacting the story makes it feel even more contemporary.
Finally: it brings me immense pleasure to have a character named “Bushy.” I am sorry to see him go.
——————
If you missed the first two Richard II episodes live on WNYC, you can listen to them as a podcast in your app of choice (links here). You can listen live at 8pm ET tomorrow at WNYC’s website.
You can also grab the script here. (It’s a deftly condensed version of what’s in the full play, with interstitial narration from Lupita Nyong’o so you can keep track of what’s happening without the visuals.) Here are the episode synopses and a visual guide to the cast and characters.