Folger Shakespeare Library Screens RSC's RICHARD II with David Tennant Today

Folger Shakespeare Library presents a special preview screening of RSC Live's production of Shakespeare's Richard II, the first-ever cinema broadcast from the stage of the RSC, captured from Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Featuring Dr. Who star David Tennant, this acclaimed production will be shown for only one night on the Folger stage tonight, December 2 at 7pm. Tickets to see the American premiere of this film are $20. The broadcast is a preface to Folger Theatre's production of Richard III, which begins performances on January 28, 2014.

RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran presents a vision of the monarch as a man ordained by God to lead his people, but also a king of very human weakness. Tennant's Richard is a man whose vanity threatens to divide the great houses of England and drag his people into a dynastic civil war that will last 100 years. Called "mesmerizing" by The Guardian, Tennant imbues his Richard with both chilling power and haunting frailties, in a live recording already that has already proved a smash in the UK. The film co-stars Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York, Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt, Nigel Lindsay as Bolingbroke and Jane Lapotaire as the Duchess of Gloucester.

Tickets: $20; Purchase your tickets at http://www.folger.edu/whatson or call 202.544.7077.