SOURCE: Clapp, Susannah. Review of King John. Observer (1 April 2001): 13.

In the following excerpted review, Clapp singles out several excellent performances in director Gregory Doran's “shrewd and playful” 2001 Royal Shakespeare Company production of King John.

Suddenly King John, one of the least performed of Shakespeare's plays, is all the rage. Last month, Northern Broadsides belted it out in Halifax. Now it's at the Swan. And in Gregory Doran's marvellous new production, it comes up shrewd and playful and pertinent. Shot through with humour and despair, this study of political shenanigans presents diplomacy (alias spin) as a series of playground games played for high stakes; it involves a trio of sorrowful women and a host of cynical men.

From the moment that Guy Henry's febrile, flippant King John arrives late to greet the French Ambassador—the trumpets are on their second fanfare and the nobles are rolling their eyes in...