RICHARD III till 17 February
RICHARD III: William Shakespeare
Part of the complete works festival.
RSC: Stratford, Main House
www.rsc.org.uk
Runs: 3h 25m, one interval, till 17 February
Review: Rod Dungate 23 January 2007
Exciting, exciting, thrilling
It’s totally absorbing and terrifically exciting; there’s not a lot more you could want from this play.
Michael Boyd has achieved two major things with his company; he fully exploits the Courtyard space with great confidence and he achieves a marvellous balance between the comedy of the play and its darkness. I love the modern, rough, tough, dirty-hands feeling of the production, the tone of which is firmly placed at the funeral of Prince Edward. The bier is accompanied by black suited and dressed mourners in dark glasses, they aggressively carry portraits of the Prince. It feels like some mafia family funeral, a funeral of one gang leader in a country full of warring gangs. Which of course it is. Even the programme credits make this clear (see below).
Don’t worry if you get lost about ‘Who married whom and gave birth to who else?’; a happy hour spent alone with the programme afterwards will help sort that out. But lest I sound facetious (what me?) we do well to remember that these battles killed real people and England, declining during the final years of the dying Queen, struggled to find its own identity. Richard III (the play) forms part of that struggle.
The desperate, cruel, single-minded, all-consuming, destructive pursuit of power at all costs is staggeringly well captured in this rough edged production – at times Gothic thriller, at times film noire. It’s rich and many layered.
At the centre of all the carnage is Richard III. Jonathan Slinger is riveting. Energetic, hugely enjoying his wickedness, this Richard confronts us to share his pleasure, he dares us to challenge him. He frequently moves at a run – some kind of maniacal animal . . . a wild boar perhaps.
Women are much to the fore in this play, literally cursing the men for their actions. Katy Stephens’s Queen Margaret, balancing between sane and mad, is frightening. Maureen Beattie, Duchess of York, partners her, truly moving in her grief. Against these two Ann Ogbomo’s Queen Elizabeth is a complete contrast, tall, beautiful, regal. The three women’s Act IV meeting is thrilling, and thrillingly directed as Richard has his mother’s words drowned out by loud drums – much to his jigging laughter.
Richard Cordery’s tough and understated Buckingham is to be much admired. As is Julius D’Silva’s darkly comic Sir William Catesby.
Tom Piper’s rusting sets underpin the production’s tone, Heather Carson’s atmospheric and dramatic lighting creatively enhance the total effect. And as if this isn’t enough, there’s a highly articulate score from James Jones and John Woolf.
The play closes with a prayer for peace – ‘Let them not live to taste this land's increase / That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!’ The ominous presence of armed guards, sub-machine guns trained on us, guarding the royal group, indicate, though, that the peace may be fragile and short-lived.
The Royal House of York
King Edward IV: Forbes Masson
George, Duke of Clarence: James Tucker
Richard, Duke of Gloucester: Jonathan Slinger
The Duchess of York: Maureen Beattie
Edward, prince of Wales: Charles Hamblett, Michael Hood, James Parries
Richard, Duke of York: Ralph Davis, Toby Millward, Oscar Powell
Edward Plantagenet: Jack Fielding, Alexander Morris, Jamie Thomas
Margaret Plantagenet: Alice Roberts, Sophie Samuda, Jessica Smith
Richard’s Faction
The Duke of Buckingham: Richard Cordery
Sir Richard Ratcliffe: Matt Costain
Sir William Catesby: Julius D’Silva
Sir James Tyrrel: John Mackay
Lovell: Keith Dunphy
Vaughan: Nicholas Asbury
The Woodeville Faction
Queen Elizabeth: Ann Ogbomo
Lord Rivers: Geoffrey Streatfeild
Lord Grey: Chris McGill
The marquis of Dorset: Wela Frasier
The Archbishop of York: Roger Watkins
The Hastings Faction
Lord Hastings: Tom Hodgkins
Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby: Keith Bartlett
The Bishop of Ely: Miles Richardson
The Lancastrians
Queen Margaret: Katy Stephens
Lady Anne: Hannah Barrie
The Earl of Richmond: Lax Shrapnel
The Earl of oxford: Paul Hamilton
The Londoners
The Lord Mayor: Kieran Hill
Sir Walter Herbert: Geoffrey Freshwater
Mistress Shore: Alexia Healy
The Ghosts
Ghost of Henry VI: Chuk Iwuji
Ghost of Warwick: Patrice Naiambana
Ghost of York: Clive Wood
Brackenbury: Antony Bunsee
Directed by: Michael Boyd
Designed by: Tom Piper
Lighting Designed by: Heather Carson
Music Composed by: James Jones and John Woolf
Associate Director: Richard Twyman
Movement by: Liz Ranken
Sound Designed by: Andrea J Cox
Fights by: Terry King
Director of Rope Work: Matt Costain
Assistant Director: Donnacadh O’Briain
Company Voice Work by: Alison Bomber
2007-01-24 17:50:03