Productions of Richard II:

1900. Frank Benson's troupe performed Richard II 16 times (March 15-May 5) at the Lyceum Theatre (London). Benson played Richard, Oscar Asche Mowbray, Harcourt Williams Hotspur, Frank Rodney Bolingbroke, and Lily Brayton the Queen (Wearing, 1900-09, I, 14).

1901. Frank Benson played Richard II in eight performances (March 13-25) of the play at the Comedy Theatre (London). Lilian Braithwaite played the Queen and Frank Rodney Bolingbroke V (Wearing, 1901-9, I, 79-80).

1901. April 15 marked the opening of Frank Benson's festival season at Stratford-upon-Avon. The company presented for the first time at Stratford a cycle of the history plays: King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Part 2, and Richard III. The company presented five other plays as well, including Much Ado About Nothing (Loney, I, 8).

1908. Frank Ludlow's ensemble began a two-week engagement at New York City's Bijou Theatre; the plays by Shakespeare were Richard II and The Merchant of Venice (Loney,I, 44).

1910. Beginning on March 28, several companies presented a London Shakespeare Festival at His Majesty's Theatre. Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company played The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. Norman Mckinnel presented King Lear and The Merchant of Venice; Arthur Bourchier and his company came next with The Merchant of Venice. H. B. Irving played Hamlet, and Frank Benson's "Bensonians" followed with the Taming of the Shrew and Coriolanus. Poel's Elizabethan Stage Society gave a performance--in the "original" sixteenth-century style--of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Lewis Waller revived his Henry V, and Tree returned to close the Festival with The Merchant of Venice and Richard II (Loney, I, 54).

1910. At the first Stratford-upon-Avon Summer Shakespeare Festival, Benson presented The Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Henry V, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Richard II, Hamlet, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Loney, I, 54).

1911. On July 22 Stratford's second summer season began; this is the year that Baliol Holloway debuted with the Bensonians. The plays performed are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and the Tempest (Loney, I, 159).

1913. Frank Benson opened the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Festival with Richard II; the troupe also performed Henry IV, Part 2, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Hamlet this season. Added attractions were William Poel's production of Troilus and Cressida, with Edith Evans and Hermione Gingold, as well as Poel himself as the performers, and a presentation of Henry V by the students of Stratford's King Edward VI Grammar School (Loney, I, 68).

1913. Frank Benson's summer season of Shakespeare's plays opened on August 2 with The Merchant of Venice; other plays performed that season were As You Like It, Hamlet, King John, Richard II, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and Henry IV, Part 2 (Loney, I, 68).

1914. Frank Benson returned from the United States to direct the Stratford Summer Festival. He opened the four-week festval with Much Ado About Nothing. The company also presented Hamlet, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet (Loney, I, 73).