The Tragedy of King Richard II - Shakespeare

The Tragedy of King Richard the Second at Almeida Theatre, London.
 Photo: Marc Brenner

Richard II won’t be playing in Victoria. So this is mostly for the Calgary folk who will get to see it on Saturday if they can make it to the show.  Here is a review which is fun, even if you don't plan to see the show. 

Just a side note.

Rebecca and I didn’t look at the time on our tickets for La Traviata and we got to the show at 9:55 am instead of noon.

It was a blustery day, even by Alberta standards.

When we couldn’t open the doors to the theatre, one on the far side did open and a man stepped out and asked why we were there.

“For the opera,” we said.

He went on to tell us that our timing was wrong. We stepped in for a few minutes and chatted. He said he was the manager. I wanted to know why his theatre doesn’t bring in some of the NT Live performances, like the upcoming I’m Not Running, and this weekend's Richard II. He told me that the shows that come to Victoria are selected in Toronto. They found they had sold out crowds for some anime shows, so booked them for a week. The attendance fell off after three days. I can imagine, everyone in Victoria interested in anime might have attended in three days. The theatre holds 350 seats which they want a sell-out crowd for.

He didn't have to say anymoe.  I really "got it", since I took that Film Festival course when I was pursing some film studies at the University of Calgary.

Of course, people do come out for opera and ballet. And yes, I have been to some of the other events and only a smattering of people attend. I guess there is no way to predict public taste.

If anyone does make it out in the cold to see Richard II, do give a one or two sentence review to us.  I would be trudging through snowdrifts to see it.  There is no accounting for tastes.

Arta