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King John, The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Director's cut Shakespeare sacrifices coherence for chaos
Attention seeking: Eleanor Rhode’s production of King John

ONE of Shakespeare’s less popular plays, King John has been described as the most satirical of his histories.

And, as the global scene politically increasingly resembles the goings-on in an exceptionally unruly school yard, Eleanor Rhode’s production attempts to capture that particular spirit of the times.

A radio newscast heralds the entry of Rosie Sherry’s tentative, childlike king. He’s like the first-comer to a kids’ party which is to turn into the bear garden disaster parents dread and the political power struggles at the heart of all Shakespeare’s histories is here played out as the ensuing action descends further into chaos.

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