Announcing that David Tennant would be playing Richard II for the RSC later this year, director Gregory Doran said the actor who played Hamlet for the company in 2008 had the necessary verse-speaking skills, and could convey both humour and fragility. So how will Tennant match up to recent Richards?
Fragility has very much been the key to the Richards of our day, such as Eddie Redmayne's performance at the Donmar in 2011. Redmayne's king was painfully young and gauche.
Ben Whishaw's recent Richard II in the BBC's The Hollow Crown was, suggested one TV reviewer, modelled partly on Michael Jackson and partly on an about-to-be-crucified Jesus Christ. Make up your own mind by looking at this clip.
The actor most associated with the role, however, is John Gielgud. I'm afraid I can't dig out any video clips – do share if you can find any – but here's some audio of him delivering some speeches from the play, including the famous line: "Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs."
Gielgud went on to play John of Gaunt in the 1978 BBC film Richard II, which starred Derek Jacobi as the flawed king.
But my favourite Richard is the most vulnerable of them all: Mark Rylance in this 2003 production at the Globe. This Richard is so frail it's as if he might snap in two. You could well believe he might look in the mirror and discover that there's nobody there, except a hollow man performing the role of king.
