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:

Theo Bosanquet - 5 February 2010

The second production in the Love&Madness residency at Riverside Studios is a modern-dress mounting of one of Shakespeare's finest and most oft-quoted history plays.

Carl Prekopp's Richard falls somewhere between Ian Dury and Alistair Campbell – a suit-sporting smooth talker replete with polio limp and a left hand that seems to be afflicted with Dupuytren's contracture.

It's a good interpretation, that improves markedly after a shaky start. In fact, Ben Kidd's production is a tidy package all round, featuring a moody electro soundscape (by Sam Ward) and a powerhouse performance from Matthew Sim as Queen Margeret – the play's dark heart who snaffles many of the best lines (“Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider” sends shivers down the spine).

Sim, along with most of the nine-strong company, is double cast. This works to mixed effect – Neil Sheppeck does fine work with King Edward and Richmond, but having [Gerard Mc...

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