Colchester Events Calendar

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This guide lists events at a glance, showing what’s on each month. See the highlights of What’s On for Colchester, featuring the best of things to do in Colchester – Live Music and Gigs, Family Events, Art & Culture, Food & Drink and much more. Colchester fundraisers and charity events.

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Richard II by William Shakespeare

Name: Richard II by William Shakespeare
Start: 2026-06-30T19:30:00+01:00
End: 2026-07-04T22:15:00+01:00

30 June @ 7:30 pm - 4 July @ 10:15 pm

£12.00

Wivenhoe Open-Air Shakespeare present Richard II against the dramatic back-drop of St Mary’s Church in Wivenhoe.

Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s most poetically beautiful yet most underrated plays. It depicts the struggle between two conflicting ideas of leadership: the divine right of kings, represented by Richard, and power by conquest, represented by his cousin and rival, Henry Bolingbroke. At the same time, it is both an intimate family story, with Richard and Bolingbroke’s many uncles, aunts and cousins vying for influence, and a cautionary tale against tyranny, cronyism and hubris.

To conceal his betrayal of the Duke of Gloucester, Richard banishes Bolingbroke from England. When Bolingbroke’s mother, Joan of Gaunt, dies, Richard seizes his absent cousin’s inheritance to fund a war in Ireland. Bolingbroke, incensed, raises an army and returns to England to fight for her title and lands. What follows is a battle not only of might but of personalities, with the stakes nothing less than the soul of the nation.

Tickets £12.00 available from Wivenhoe Bookshop or via Ticketsourcehttps://www.ticketsource.com/wivenhoe-richard-ii/richard-ii-by-william-shakespeare/e-vrrepm
Seating provided. Cash bar opens 6.30pm.
No parking at the venue – there is a public car park on the High Street.