The Life and Death of King John

Not many Shakespeare plays can be accurately described as underrated, but King John is one of them: the tragic history of Richard the Lionheart's much less lionized younger brother, an early English king of uncertain morals who squares off against France, the Pope and a wildly popular pretender to the throne. John Gordon directs a rare staging of the play for the fledgling Smoking Mirror Theatre Company, with Bellamy Woodside Ridinger in the title role.