Ruling by divine right, but himself ruled by caprice, King Richard exiles Henry Bolingbroke and seizes his father’s vast states. While Richard is distracted by a rebellion in Ireland, Bolingbroke returns to England, intent on recovering his

rightful property and, with the support of his disgruntled peers, perhaps seizing the crown itself.

Dazzlingly eloquent and ceremonious, Richard II invests a weak and self-dramatising man with tragic status and represents hakespeare’s most searching exploration of the meaning of kingship and the rising powers that can destroy it.

Recorded live at Shakespeare’s Globe, July 2015.

Subtitles: ENGLISH

Running time: 148 minutes