Richard] pill'd with grievous taxes / And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fined / For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts" and is portrayed as an overt follower of Henry Bolingbroke from the beginning. Shakespeare has this discussion take place in the north; in this way, says Hill, their separation from the King emphasises their geographical closeness to Bolingbroke. The speed with which Ross deserts Richard and joins Henry is in stark contrast to the themes of loyalty and honour that the play deals with, suggests Margaret Shewring. Described by Shakespeare (based on Raphael Holinshed's chronicle) as "fiery-red with haste", Ross joins Bolingbroke at Berkeley, Gloucestershire. In 1738—when the public image of the King, George I, was poor—the play was put on by John Rich, in the knowledge that it was "dangerously topical in terms of contemporary politics". The discussion between Ross, Willoughby and Northumberland on the faults of the King—"basely led/by flatterers"—has been argued to have reflected contemporary disfavour with George, who was widely believed to be under the influence of his chief minister, Horace Walpole. A contemporary, Thomas Davies, watched the performance and later wrote how "almost every line that was spoken to the occurrences of the time, and to the measures and character of the ministry". The text of Richard II is often cut by directors, either to tighten the plot or to avoid problems with weak casting, and the role of Lord Ross is occasionally omitted. For example, in the 1981 Bard Productions film, Ross' part was given to the Exton character, and in the Erickson-Farrell 2001 film, Ross was one of seven characters dropped, his part again given to Exton. He has still been played by several actors in post-war performances. At the 1947 Avignon Festival, Pierre Lautrec played to Jean Vilar's Richard; Vilar also directed the play. The same year, Walter Hudd directed it with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, with Joss Ackland as Ross to Robert Harris' Richard. Four years later, Anthony Quayle—also with the SMT—directed Michael Redgrave as the King, Harry Andrews as Bolingbroke, and Philip Morant in the part of Lord Ross. In 1968 the Prospect Theatre toured Richard II in two legs. Directed by Richard Cottrell and with Ian McKellen and Timothy West as Richard and Bolingbroke respectively, Ross was played by Peter Rocca on the first half of the tour and David Calder on