The Plays of William Shakespeare - King Richard II

Rating:
Summary: Richard II receives the 'not-so-royal' treatment
Review: Shakespeare wrote plays that fit into three categories. His comedies, tragedies and histories. KING RICHARD II is one of those histories and is the first in a series of chronological stories. The characters in this small series (from RICHARD II through HENRY VI and culminating with RICHARD III) are pretty consistent as the title chacter in one play will rise or fall based on conflict with the person who will be the title character in the next 'episode'. With that said, RICHARD II focuses on a not-so-grand king who is happy with his throne but, he makes several mistakes. The largest of which involves banishing his own cousin and taking that cousins land. That cousin asks for it back but is refused. So, a battle is destined to happen. But, Richard is unsure and gives up his throne to his cousin who becomes HENRY IV (See Episode 2&3 of this series). I am glad this televised video exists if only for the fact that RICHARD II is not one of the more popular Shakespeare stories and thus does not get performed very often. It also hasn't been adorned with many cinematic appearances. This rendition is of the 'make-it-easy-to-understand-for-high-school-students' school of videomaking. And if truth be said, the performances and language use, understandable and clear, deliver. They did not, however, go through its scenic design in the same 'high-school-student' thought process. Whether, they are in a throne room or out on a battlefield, little is done to differentiate making story geography a challenge. Embarrasingly, many of the scenes are separated by brief music cues that literally must have come out of an old tape recorder as the music unintentionally slows and speeds up like the batteries are having a mini-Shakespeare Tragedy of their own. How is that error even possible? The video quality (And I mean 'video') is pretty low and on occasion carries a very blurry screen. This is unforgivable today as cameras for the past 20+ years have a feature called 'auto-focus'. If you are fan of Shakespeare and have not been able to see this work, this might be the only option for awhile. You will be fulfilled. But, the production is very lacking and should be priced in with the extreme bargain releases.