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Richard II, Donmar Warehouse, London Company, Crucible, Sheffield The ...

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In a gilded throne dwelling heavy with incense, this young royal is cultivating an ambiance of sanctified majesty. Redmayne barely deigns to fill up eye contact with his genuflecting courtiers.

His frailty is apparent, however, as speedily as two feuding nobles storm in and demand that he adjudicate. With his lip twitching like a agitated rabbit, Redmayne blinks myopically, even while trying to assert his specialist.

Far from restoring the peace, he sets in motion his own ruin by banishing his cousin. Incensed, Andrew Buchan’s Bolingbroke will deliver to head a rebel army, depose Richard and, of no doubt, be crowned Henry IV.

Grandage’s staging is certainly ample with its shimmering silks, glinting armour and silver shafts of inconsequential. The medieval costumes actually make the modern-day reverberations more frightening: the arrogant top dog Richard being toppled by a mass insurrection, having heaped taxes on the communal folk and stuffed his own coffers with gold.

Unfortunately, Redmayne’s portrayal proves a disappointment. He is, as yet, not sufficiently assured to capture all of Richard’s mercurial complexities. The facial twitches seem increasingly apparent. His glazed stare means he hardly connects with anyone emotionally. Though he time after time talks of weeping, his fall inspires no tears, and his devastated georgic monologues were nervously rushed on press night.

Source: The Independent