Richard III

Synopsis

Or by its full first quarto title of The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, containing his trecherous plots against his brother Clarence: the pittiful murder of his innocent nephews: his tyrannical usurpation: with the whole course of his detested life and most deserved death. Of course, nowadays Richard is seen as much maligned but the image of the hunchback reciting "Now is the winter of our discontent" will remain with us for a long time. Essentially the plot sees Richard assuming the throne after Edward IV and disposing of all those with greater right. He is finally killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field after having pronounced that other great line "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" (shouldn't that be "An horse!"?).

Our Review:

8 May 2008

After seven productions of medieval mayhem it’s a bit of a shock to be confronted by this modern dress Richard. What’s particularly strange is that in the previous histories director Michael Boyd has taken great pains to emphasise the continuity within history; how events from one generation pass down to another, yet here we have something starkly different.

Why Boyd has done this? Is it to demonstrate how the bloody power struggles of five hundred and so years haunt us still? Is it to show that the family jealousies and rivalries that make up much of the action of the play are of all time? Or is it that in the age of spin, this Richard is the ultimate showman – presenting an honest and devout face to much of the world while spinning his web?

Whatever reason, I’m not sure that it works, by distancing it from the rest of the histories, we lose that sense of perspective that makes the other seven productions work so well. Nor am I wholly convinced by [Jonathan Slinger...

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