Richard II *****

I dearly hope the Donmar continues to sparkle without Grandage, since this is his last show with them as the artistic director – and does he go out in a pomp of glory. I have given a standing ovation only three times in my life, and this was my fourth. Grandage achieves that which exquisite in theatre, he not only engages audience empathy (in a Shakespeare history of all things that could be distant subjects to the audience) but stimulates them too. I cannot bear when the audience is patronised as could too easily have been done to explain this lesser performed play of Shakespeare’s work, but he lets the script stand alone, and refreshingly, avoids updating it.

Upcoming star Eddie Redmayne, I expected might be too young for this role, but I could not have been more wrong. Redmayne bestows a grandiose King with humanity and sings the poetry of Shakespeare. But this success could only be really achieved in the Donmar, where you’re close enough to see the vulnerability in his eyes. I have never been much of a fan of the histories, as they’re a world so far apart from us – more like watching a film through the transparent box of the television. Yet the purity of Redmayne’s characterisation is entrancing. Similarly, his antithesis Henry Bolingbroke (Andrew Buchan) is no storybook villain, his acting so subtle it has a meditative quality bubbling under the surface. Together they bring a tired formula to life: a subject seeks revenge on a flawed king; which was not only essential to my sensibility, but simply understanding of a complex play I hadn’t read before.

Pulling off a performance all its own, the combination of Cork’s sound and Kent’s design is tremendously atmospheric and yet minimalist. You walk into a space more like a church than a theatre, coated in ageing gold; symbols of depleting power and tradition – the metaphors concealed by Grandage are endlessly fascinating. This production transports the audience not only in the production, but into the hearts and minds of the characters. Richard II is a play about the flawed nature of humanity, in a historical, courtly setting, which is flawlessly executed.