I was lucky enough to catch Michael Pennington’s performances in RSC productions visiting Newcastle in the last decades of the 20th century. I still recall his lacerating self-disgust at the close of Seán O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman: “O Donal Davoren, poet and poltroon, poltroon and poet!”In complete contrast, there was a moment in his portrayal of Shakespeare’s Richard II, where he conveys the king…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:25PM on May 15, 2026