Richard has been king since he was nine years old, but never really learned how to do it properly. So now his Lancastrian cousin Bolingbroke underhandedly usurps the crown and sets off a series of eight plays in which order is not restored until the last scene in Richard the Third. “He is come to open the purple testament of bleeding war."

Here is a detailed synopsis on Wikipedia.

Click here to open a PDF I created that includes brief background information on the Earl of Essex and this play, the Divine Right of Kings, a list of Shakespeare’s history plays in historical order, themes and motifs in the play, background info for the first act on the Lords Appellant (the accusers), a chart and brief info of historical characters, geeky stuff about language, and a visual genealogical chart of characters.

If your group reads the plays straight through in one sitting and you want to divide up the parts, we have a number of “cast” lists already divided up for you. These are text files that you edit to suit your group. We always recommend in a straight-through read that each participant take a moment beforehand to mark their parts—then everything proceeds so smoothly. (coming soon)

• Cast for 9, plus a reader for Stage Directions
• Cast for 10, plus a reader for Stage Directions
• Cast for 12, plus a reader for Stage Directions

For those of you who provide parts a scene at a time, this Character Chart shows all the characters' lines in each scene: Richard the Second

And this chart gives brief descriptions of each of the historical characters in this play: Historical Richard the Second

This is an audio recording of the play by professional actors with sound effects:

Edited-for-film versions of the Henriad, four discs: Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth parts One and Two, and Henry the Fifth