Did London Critics Hail Kevin Spacey in Richard II at the Old Vic?

Old Vic Artistic Director Kevin Spacey is gracing his theater's stage yet again. This time he is starring in a modern-dress production of William Shakespeare's Richard II, directed by Trevor Nunn. Did critics think this Richard deserved to reign?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: "Let's celebrate a performance that is the very opposite of a waste of his or our time. Thanks to [Spacey's] skills and Trevor Nunn's direction, it is strong enough for us at last to feel confident about the future of Spacey's regime and of our most venerable classical theatre… Here is the key to Spacey's reading. Even when he is warned of danger to come, he simply cannot conceive of the possibility of being opposed, let alone overthrown. He comes across as pretty smug, but also more justified in complacency than most Richards, for he has genuine charisma, majesty and even strength of will."

Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "You would need a heart of stone not to be stirred by Kevin Spacey, oozing pomp and circumstance, in the empty glitter of Trevor Nunn's modish, moderndress production of Richard II… Few modern Richards, though, have proved so irresistibly unsympathetic in power or downfall as Spacey. Sean Baker's outraged Mowbray and Ben Miles's unenergetic Bolingbroke, whose driving ambition never moves more dangerously than at a sedan chair's speed, are banished with a malicious nonchalance. Moments later the king happily parties with flatterers… Despite the vitality of Spacey's conception I could only muster faint flickers of sympathy for this flippant, ice-cold monarch of Albion. When hubris should give way to heartbreak, when Richard loses power, throne and balance of the mind, Spacey's king cannot or refuses to become Shakespeare's raw, racked ruin."

Michael Billington of The Guardian: "This is an aggressively modern-dress production that sees the play in political terms and makes full use of TV screens, videos, microphones and machine-guns. But this raises as many questions as it answers. You wonder how Richard retains absolute power in an England of mobile phones and text messages… But, even if the play wears modern-dress rather uneasily, Spacey's fine performance confirms his Shakespearean credentials… As a production, it is lively and energetic. But it still leaves me wondering what kind of England we are in. Nunn's best achievement, however, is to have released the Shakespearean inside Kevin Spacey and shown that he has the kingly authority naturally to command the Old Vic stage."

Michael Coveney of The Independent: "Nunn has always had the knack of making the most difficult plays seem easy in modern dress. He once made Timon of Athens look like a David Hare play. The trick works brilliantly here, with the lords assembled in ermine robes in wooden pews in a rough likeness of the House of Lords and the political realities then enacted in modern suits… Spacey's Richard exchanges his large kingdom for a little grave in a burst of anger. Unlike the greatest RSC productions… Nunn and Spacey give short shrift to the emblematic imagery of the sun and the see-saw pageantry. Instead, we have a continuous mobility of action with wonderful set pieces… and a riveting prison finale at Pomfret."

Jill Lawless of The Associated Press: "Spacey's physically expressive Richard easily switches from charm to shock to red-faced anger, although at times he seems hollow beneath his royal exterior--without power, he is nothing. In defeat and exile, however, Richard finds a kind of self-knowledge, and Spacey achieves a moving dignity. Spacey commands the Old Vic stage, but does not dominate it. This is an ensemble production--as much about the king's envious courtiers and jealous rivals as the king himself--with strong performances especially from Ben Miles as the challenger Bolingbroke and Peter Eyre as the vacillating Duke of York. Nunn's production moves swiftly without sacrificing Shakespeare's language, and makes effective use of video images and other technology."