Still, since “Richard III” is among Shakespeare’s longest plays, shearing it in half inevitably makes for some uncomfortable shortcuts. While all the big set pieces are here — Richard’s famous opening oration; the seduction of Lady Anne (Michelle Beck) over the corpse of her father-in-law, whom Richard has killed; the prophetic curse of Queen Margaret (Suzanne Bertish) — many scenes have been severely abbreviated or modestly refashioned. Richard himself, employing a robotic voice to hide his identity, kills Clarence, his trusting brother. A significant character, the Duchess of York, mother of Richard and his brothers Clarence (Miriam A. Hyman) and King Edward IV (Kevin Kelly), has left the scene entirely.

As a result the ambitious Richard dispatches foes and friends alike with a speed that is almost disorienting and on at least one occasion, a little confusing. The execution of the courtiers, Rivers and Gray, characters who scarcely register in this shortened version, had me thinking that the princes in the tower were being prematurely offed. (The cast numbers just nine, with actors playing as many as four roles.) The production is performed in the round on a mostly bare stage, with the only significant prop a canvas on which the royal lineage is carefully diagramed: as one by one the characters are killed, their names are blotted out in red paint, a helpful aide in keeping score of the body count.

The telescoping of the text does give Richard’s headlong sprint for the crown a certain dizzying intensity and matches the sense of dismayed horror that the characters themselves must surely feel as their comfortable lives are slashed to ribbons. Mr. Jones, with his gravelly baritone and Mephistophelean sprig of beard, makes a strikingly sinister-looking Richard. But it’s actually the character’s seductions that are most effectively portrayed here. In the tricky scene in which the bereaved and outraged Lady Anne is convinced to accept Richard’s suit for her hand, Mr. Jones strikes hypnotically persuasive notes of piteous distress as he (falsely) confesses to having committed the crime for love of Anne.