By James Karas
The Almeida Theatre’s Richard
III directed by Rupert Goold is a powerful production that seethes with
violence and gives us Shakespeare at his best.
In 2012 the bones of the murderous king were found in a parking lot in
Leicester, England. Goold uses the grave where the bones were found as the
central image in his production. The rectangular hole in the ground is visible throughout
the performance and is a convenient place to dump some of Richard’s hapless
victims.
The dominant colour of the production is black and there is scant
scenery. The characters speak on a black background with some exceptions as
when the throne is visible. The characters wear modern dress and occasionally
use cell phones.
Ralph Fiennes as Richard III. Photo: Marc Brenner
Ralph Fiennes is a powerful, vicious and malevolent Richard. He speaks
in measured tones that exude violence and imminent danger for anyone who dares
disagree with the ambitious duke who must dispose his brother and his nephews
and bludgeon his way to the throne of England.
He does. Richard is also a liar and a consummate actor.
He proves the latter attributes in the opening scenes of the play where
he pretends to support his brother while plotting to kill him and he seduces
Lady Ann (Joanna Vanderham), the widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of
King Henry VI both of whom Richard killed. She is following the coffin of Henry
VI and Richard convinces her that he loves her.
Vanderham stands her ground and spews insults and curses at her
husband’s killer in a superb performance but she does not stand a chance against
the lewd Richard who grabs her Trump-style, marries her and subsequently
discards her like a used piece of furniture.
Richard III has
three other marvelous roles for woman. Vanessa Redgrave appears as Queen Margaret,
the widow of Henry VI. The queen is an old and bitter woman whose husband was
deposed by the House of York in the civil war and she curses Richard roundly.
The Duchess of York (Susan Engel) is the mother of Richard who kills her
son Clarence and her grandchildren in order to gain the throne. The pain of a
mother is written on Engel’s fine face in this moving performance.
Susan Engel and Vanessa Redgrave in Richard III. Photo: Marc Brenner
The best part may well be that of Queen Elizabeth, the wife and later
widow of King Edward IV. Her sons are heirs to the throne until their uncle
Richard has them murdered and gains the crown. The ruthless Richard III suggests
that he marry the Queen’s daughter, his niece and the sister of the murdered
princes. In a superb performance, Aislin McGuckin as the Queen confronts
Richard until he strikes back and rapes her in a scene of ultimate horror.
Finbar Lynch plays a masterful,
greedy and ambitious Duke of Buckingham but his evil has limits and he ends up
in the grave that occupies center-stage of the production.
Goold has dispensed
with a number of characters of the play and made the plot more taut and
dramatic. There are no crowd scenes and most of the action is done in close-ups.
The actors speak in measured tones, pronouncing, indeed enunciating every
syllable and they are a joy to hear.
Watching Richard III the day after the American presidential elections
made comparisons between the fifteenth century king and Donald Trump
inevitable. They are both consummate liars, treat women with contempt, handle
their adversaries with unbridled viciousness and stop at nothing to gain their
ends. Richard III actually kills while Trump engages in character assassination.
They are narcissistic, manipulative and utterly ruthless.
They have their toadies and surrogates (Duke of Buckingham, Mayor of
London, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich) who not so much support the moral swamp
of their leader as add to it.
Richard III spread rumours that his brother, Edward IV was illegitimate
as are the young princes and heirs to the throne. Trump insists that President
Barack Obama was not born in the United States and utters so many egregious
lies that the truth becomes a questionable commodity.
The similarities accumulate as we watch the triumph of misogyny,
xenophobia, lying, and the lack of even a modicum of decency.
_____
Richard III by William Shakespeare in a production from
the Almeida Theatre, London, was shown at the Cineplex Cinema, Yonge-Dundas St.
East, Toronto, Ontario and other Cineplex Cinemas on November 9, 2016. It will
be shown again on December 4, 2016 in select venues. www.cineplex.com
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