British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database
King John (2012): Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre
PRINCIPAL CAST: Paola Dionisotti (Cardinal Pandulph); Mark Jax (Austria); Pippa Nixon (Bastard); Oscar Pearce (Dauphin); John Stahl (King Philip of France); Susie Trayling (Constance); Alex Waldmann (King John).
The first performance of this production took place on 6 April 2012.
"Aberg sets the action in an unspecific late twentieth century retro environment. King John wears a service greatcoat and biker boots; the King of France is resplendent in a powder-blue polyster safari suit. When these opponents are reconciled by a dynastic marriage, the two courts cut loose to I Say A Little Prayer and (I've Had) the Time of My Life....There are conceptually clever touches such as flooding the stage with balloons and confetti after the interval,...suggesting the mess after the party that needs to be cleaned up, ie an England in chaos following John's dispute with the Pope." ~ Ian Shuttleworth, "Kings, Bastards and latex balloons", Financial Times, 23 April 2012
Do you have anything to add to this page?
Pe People involved in this production
- British Black and Asian Shakespeare Database by the University of Warwick, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council 2012-2015, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See full copyright statement.