August 1st, 2008
RICHARD II On a happier note than my last entry, I’ve lately been to see a production of Shakespeare’s Richard II by the local Shakespeare and Company
theater group on their outdoor stage. There are several reasons why
this was special to me. One is that forty-five years ago my mother
took my teen-age self to see Richard II done by a local theater group on their outdoor stage (see the dedication to A Play of Isaac).
That night, enthralled, I slipped into late medieval England and have
never come out: it is no exaggeration to say that Dame Frevisse and Joliffe and all my books have come because I saw that play then.
Later,
I joined that theater group and there met the man I later married. The
marriage has long since ended, but I am still happily in medieval
England, and this summer, on another stage, in another place I watched
this other production -- echo and reminder of all there’s been in all
the years between -- of Richard II -- with my older son in one of the lead roles, playing Bolingbroke. - Margaret |
