RSC's Richard II John of Gaunt's speech

by Michael Pennington
more information here www.rsc.org.uk/....
you can also by a DVD of this play on Amazon here www.amazon.com/....

[@erpollock]

So many famous phrases - this sceptered isle, this happy breed, this earth, this realm - this England!

[@margaretlavender4418]

Eileen Pollock. Exactly, just what I was thinking, who can forget them. Could be a Churchill speech.

[@keith3660]

What a wonderful interpretation of such a brilliant speech.

[@JacobSnell1998]

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

[@brucehunter8235]

Michael Pennington is a great Shakespearean actor who deserves to be far more famous than he is. I was just watching clips from Michael Bogdanov's English National Theatre production of Richard II where he plays the king opposite Clyde Pollitt's Gaunt. Another reversal, but this time a more welcome one. He's still marvelous as ever.

[@Stevecamden]

I suppose a warning to all that your little demi- paradise can be easily toppled when there is corruption at the top!

[@memyselfandpeoples2]

All the spit ejected on "Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it"

[@CountZero78]

Same Michael Pennington who played Moff Jerjerrod in The Return of the Jedi.

[@squamish4244]

You kneel before Darth Vader in 1982 and your career is made forever.

[@kageypg]

And the real name, I believe, of Johnny Vegas!

[@daffydeel9873]

I saw this last year in NY. I was really disappointed to find that Michael Pennington was replaced by Julian Glover.

[@schaerffenberg]

How incredibly prophetic --- "That England that was wont to conquer others hath made a SHAMEFUL conquest of itself". Britain's epitaph.

[@margaretlavender4418]

marc roland. Just got to it!

[@jonathandnicholson]

The speech is a criticism of Richard II and his policies. The speech echoes the ideas of Athelstan (that the England is a nation-state of defence) and ties in with Elizabeth I's speech at Tilbury (the actual speech not the Cate Blanchett movie speech).

[@Anto_81]

Wow

[@J.B24]

WTF was laughing at the end?

[@J.B24]

Was Geilgud better?

[@pix046]

The immigrants are in their dinghies dicing with watery Neptune to get in.

[@margaretlavender4418]

pix046. Yup.

[@Stevecamden]

‘Against infection and the hand of war’ - well one out to two isn’t bad, I suppose

[@brucehunter8235]

Wonderful interjection of inappropriate laughter at the end there. Normally I find myself rolling my eyes at the stony silence when the audience doesn't understand the obvious humour. This time it is reversed. Great. STFU.