King John Arkangel Audio Production

Since there are so few full productions of King John available, I thought I'd write you a post about the Arkangel Audio recording. The Arkangel productions are fantastic Shakespeare. The casts include many famous and accomplished actors. If you find yourself asking “Wait, is that...” the answer usually is that yes, it is. Your local public library can probably get a copy of King John into your hands fairly quickly, and unlike Hamlet or Macbeth, the disk will probably not be too worn from use.

The first things you'll notice are that the costumes and scenery are much better than the BBC production. OK, that's a joke I've been using since reading the novelization of the Doctor Who episode “Terror of the Zygons” back in the mid-80s, but it holds true. An audio production (or sci-fi novelization) has the advantage that it can build great sets and costumes without having to spend a penny on sets or costumes. The BBC production only looks like it didn't spend any money on sets and costumes.

Michael Feast is very good as King John. I prefer Leonard Rossiter, but he was long since dead when this was made. I guess you can't have everything.

Michael Maloney is my second favorite Philip the bastard. He plays the bastard as more devious and scheming than George Costigan, who plays the character as more charming and funny. Comedic roles are hard to pull off in Shakespeare even with the full physical pallette available to an actor on stage, so even though I prefer Costigan's portrayal, I can't really hold it against Maloney.

Eileen Atkins is great as Constance, although to me she sounds a bit too old to be the mother of a preteen. Shakespeare was always messing with the ages of characters, though, so I don't think it's too far of a reach. The “My grief fills the room up of my absent child,” speech kills me every time. Atkins appeared as the evil Tamora in the BBC TV production of Titus Andronicus – a very different part.

You'll also recognize the voice of Bill Nighy, who played the art museum guy in the Doctor Who episode “Vincent and the Doctor”. OK, maybe you'll recognize him as Scrimgeor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One? He also plays The British Guy in just about 1000 other things. In this he appears as Cardinal Pandolf, and this interesting and talented actor plays him as boring and tedious. Unfortunately, that's the role. Pandolf is boring and long-winded and there's not much you can do about it. It would have been great to hear him in a more interesting role – maybe King John himself, or perhaps Hubert.

But I can't complain about Trevor Peacock as Hubert. You probably won't recognize him, which is too bad because he was in a number of the BBC complete Shakespeare films in the early 1980s. You'll see him if you go back and watch Titus Andronicus or the Henry VI plays. Hubert has to be strong and conflicted, and Trevor Peacock plays that brilliantly.

While this doesn't count as Shakespeare on screen, it is a very good production of King John and I do recommend it. I'll be back to screen productions in my next post.

King John. Dir. Clive Brill. Perf. Michael Feast, Eileen Atkins, and Michael Maloney. CD. Arkangel, 2003.