Answers to Ambiguities in Derek Jacobi's Richard IIThe mere text of a screenplay does not live and breathe the way a visual performance must. Both the director and the actors must make choices in a production, interpret and make clear the plot and purpose of the work. Derek Jacobi's Richard II uses the capabilities of film to remove many of the ambiguities that plague the interpretation of that text. In doing so, he creates a passionate but ineffective King Richard who, between his own insecurity and Northumberland's connivance, hurls the crown at the willing but uncomfortable Bullingbrook. Richard's character becomes evident through costume, acting and script choices. Throughout the show, Richard wears some of the lightest colors on stage: his white robe at court in Ii, his light blue garments in the lists in I.iii, even a pure white robe as opposed to the dirty white the "caterpillars" wear in bathroom in I.iv. Even in the deposition sequence of IV.i, the brown robe in which Riccardo is dressed is still light, almost pastel. This wardrobe choice has two effects. The light colors draw visual attention to Richard, just as he continually tries to attract auditory attention with his high-sounding speeches. Yet the constant parade of pastels and watered-down shades makes Richard look weak, particularly next to the more somberly dressed court or the much darker Bullingbrook and Northumberland. Richard's costume style reinforces the impression: in the white dress he appears to typically use for court occasions, the enormous sleeves incapacitate his hands (obviously intended at the time as an emblem of idleness, but here they also serve as an image of impotence) and the high collar forces his neck upwards, reinforcing an appearance of arrogance and detachment. ...... in the center of the paper ...... on the shoulder and handing him the summary of the accusations, expressively rolling his eyes at the continuous refusals of the dethroned king, until his complacent separation from Richard and his queen .The Derek Jacobi's production of Richard II provides its own answers to many of the ambiguities posed by the text alone. Richard is portrayed as an ineffective ruler ripe for overthrow, and Bullingbrook as a more capable man brought to power by the intrigues of Machiavellian Northumberland. Many other interpretations are valid - in fact, some of this production's choices were made easier by judicious cuts in the script - but this production provides an entertaining, reasonable and coherent interpretation of the mess of events surrounding the deposition of a king. . And in doing so the production demonstrates the almost limitless variety of theatre, particularly Shakespeare.