RICHARD III. To 10 April.
Sheffield
RICHARD III
by William Shakespeare
Crucible Theatre To 10 April 2002
Runs 3hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 0114 249 6000
Review Timothy Ramsden 19 March
Insights into Richard's brief, dark age in an impressive production.Other Shakespearean kings wear the crown from the start. Richard spends most of the action manoeuvring towards it. The moment he's crowned the plots to remove him flow in. The nearest parallel is Macbeth. What's more, the play that's so vividly stamped with Richard's personality is crammed with references to the earlier three parter Henry VI. When they're taken into account it becomes clear why Edward IV believes Clarence is plotting against him. Richmond's concluding victory speech is all about the Wars of the Roses.
Then there's the disability. When physical deformity meant moral iniquity, Richard's openness about his villainy as he lumbered over the stage must have made him seem as cosy as Hitler or Stalin. In our more sympathetic time it helps make him an attractive villain. In Sheffield, Richard's twice seen – at the start and before the Battle of Bosworth - rising from a tortuous apparatus designed to straighten him out. Whatever he says, he's not happy with how he looks.
And there's real pain. Not since David Schofield played the Elephant Man has an exposed, able-bodied actor so convincingly portrayed physical deformity. Branagh's Richard is used to the agony; he knows just how to manipulate his limbs into the right places they won't go of their own accord.
He's also found ways to minimise his limitations when fully clothed, but it only needs the royal kidsplay of young Edward V and York to remove his jerkin and attack his back to have him rolling in disabling agony.
At such moments the villainous intention become a pained response to the world. It goes with immense mental dexterity. Branagh's swift, light yet flexible way with the verse shows a mind that outraces the conventional, sluggardly court mentalities around. Every minute this person suffers silently, putting on a brave face amid people his wit must despise; how can he not see the throne's his, and any obstacle's no more than a beetle to be crushed?
One person stops him having his way with us, Barbara Jefford's magnificent Queen Margaret (outstanding in a production of this largely male play where all the women are strongly presented). Margaret's been England's hate figure ('She-wolf of France') throughout most of the Henry VI trilogy. Here she's the outsider, devoid of power, free to criticise just because she's so disregarded.
For modern audiences she has a handicap – she speaks in long speeches, the sort we're not good at following any more. But Jefford's timing and structuring give these tirades full, clear impact. Scornful, snarling and vehement, this Margaret's a forceful counterblast to Richard's onward progress.
Good playing through the ranks, with Daniel Webb a natural sidekick of a Buckingham, if his sudden whining downfall seems a director's imposition. On a stark, grey stage lit by shafts of light whose intensity emphasises the dark corners around, this is an impressive revival, and not only for the star whose presence has ensured a sell-out.
Richard: Kenneth Branagh
Clarence: Gerard Horan
Brackenbury: Andy Hockley
Hastings: Jimmy Yuill
Lady Anne: Claire Price
Rivers/Lord Mayor: Robert East
Grey/Richmond: Gideon Turner
Queen Elizabeth: Phyllis Logan
Buckingham: Danny Webb
Derby: Robert Demeger
Margaret: Barbara Jefford
Dorset: William Rycroft
Catesby: Michael Jenn
Lovel: Jonathan McGuinness
Tyrrel: Mark Bonnar
Edward IV/Biship of Ely: Richard Durden
Duchess of York: Avril Elgar
Duke of York: Elliot Jeffcock/John Tierney
Prince Edward: Ryan Sampson
Ratcliffe: Tom Mullion
Director: Michael Grandage
Designer: Christopher Oram
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Composer: Julian Philips
Fight director: Terry King
Assistant director: Nikolai Foster
2002-03-21 09:08:24