Sunday, September 6, 2015
Richard II, Costumes Tell the Story
I had watch the Shakespeare Series: King Richard II version of the play. At the very beginning of the film, when the names of the actors were being shown, the background was of a chess set with a white king laying down as if defeated. This picture is reflected throughout the play by the colors of the costumes. King Richard wore white while he reigned as king. This bright color made him stand out, making him easy to spot even when he was in the background watching things unfold in front of him. Along with this, anyone who sided with Richard wore bright pastel colors. To counter Richard's bright colors, Henry Bolingbroke and those who supported him wore dark colors. When Richard is stripped of his crown, he is stripped of his glorious white clothes and is left in his cell with nothing but a dark blanket and underwear. Bright colors in the clothing become a rarity and darker colors become the norm when Henry Bolingbroke becomes king. The color schemes of the costumes reflect the two different kings and their supporters much like the pieces of a chess set.
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One of my favorite things about performances is seeing how costumes are used to foreshadow important plot points or reveal something about the characters' natures! The last Shakespeare adaptation I watched on film, Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, gave away who the villain was by his costume colors! It's a nifty tool, especially combined with other performance techniques designed to convey similar messages to the audience, like music and lighting.
ReplyDeleteOoh I love the chess set that they use at the beginning! That's a fantastic way to portray fallen kings, etc. Symbolism at its finest! I love when costumes are used as visual indicators as to the story and characters. This is a classic and easily interpreted way to tell a story. I'm glad that so many of us in the class noticed this. Something I liked from the Hollow Crown version was that Richard had a pet monkey, symbolizing his control over his subjects, or at least the control he thought he had.
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned in my post, the Hollow Crown version also used light colors for Richard's costumes and dark colors for Bolingbroke's. It's interesting that in this version the color scheme extended to the other characters as well. That seems to emphasize that the struggle is not just between Richard and Bolingbroke but all their supporters as well, which wasn't emphasized as much in the version I watched.
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