In 1601, on the afternoon before the abortive rebellion qua unpermitted parade of the Earl of Essex, the conspirators did something very unusual. They went to the theatre. The management of Shakespeare's theatre had received a certain financial contribution in exchange for staging (in midwinter) the play that the conspirators had selected -- Richard II. The point was thought to be the deposition scene, where Richard (often thought to have been based on Elizabeth, including by the sovereign -- "I am Richard the Second, know ye not that?") surrenders his crown.
So, given recent events here, it was basically impossible for me not to attend the JDP's R2, staged two days after the historic election. I gave it the late afternoon, went to the cafe at the bookshop next door and re-read the play and made notes over some coffee, and then walked next door. I had seen that theatre's house-party production of Much Ado a few years back, and last year, I saw the national theatre's Macbeth, so I had some sense of the general Shakespearean gestalt here. But I was completely unprepared for what happened. Or, rather what didn't happen. The play simply didn't function. There wasn't the slightest frisson in the house at the critical moment. Admittedly, during the curtain call, there were inspiring cheers, chants and banners, but the play itself was simply an anodyne entertainment with a very questionable staging that seemed at times like a Russian made-for-television bros-and-guns movie, and the audience simply sat there and watched it as such. (Perhaps playing Richard III during a production of Richard II is a form of progress in the materialist-historical sense.)
Rather disappointing evening in the πανανθροποσ department. Of course that just means that the salient fact was that this sort of theatre doesn't really function here, which is a useful thing to know. But this play was written to receive and express precisely this political moment -- and, whether due to the translation (that sounded like prose, though the local languages are notoriously averse to the iamb, pentameter or otherwise) or the staging, the event of the play simply didn't occur. But the curtain call was very interesting. Fascinating to be in a country when it's in the process of regeneration (this country has actually looked to the universities during its last few cycles of renewal), and observing the shared notion of community.
But it would be better with a functioning Shakespearean drama, at least when staging a Shakespearean drama.