Play: Richard III

Last Read: Spring 2012

Structure:

10.0/10.0



I think the best thing Richard III has going for it is that it functions very well as a part of the War of the Roses cycle, but it’s also a fantastic standalone piece. Shakespeare layers in enough information regarding the events of Henry VI that you don’t really need to read the preceding plays to understand it. That’s a great strength to have, something that it has in common with Henry V, another tetrad ender in the canon. But on with the actual content of this play…

What I think is particularly striking about this play, something that has kept it at the forefront of dramatic minds for a long time, is the way it starts. One of the biggest things I noticed about any of the plays, as I have read them all now, is that the ones that start in an exciting way that really draws you in are the ones that keep your interest. The Tempest begins with a wonderful storm of epic proportions. Pericles, Prince of Tyre starts with some silly riddle about incest. And Richard III? Well, this play does so much in the very first lines of the play. Shakespeare had the good sense to write one of the best villain justification speeches in the entire canon and open the entire play with it. Richard tells us what he’s going to do, how he’s going to do it, and why. And then by God, he does it. It’s a captivating scene and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat wondering if he can actually pull it off.

From there on out, it’s a constant flow of intense drama and manipulation. The best thing is that you never feel like the play isn’t moving forward. This play’s only a bit shorter than Hamlet, but I think it feels even less tedious. I love Hamlet, but sometimes you wish they’d all get on with it. Here, in Richard III, you almost wish there was more Richard to go around, more story, more drama.

Emotion:

10.0/10.0

This play, since it was my first history a while ago, made me quite nervous as to how the other histories could possibly live up to the sheer power of this one. There’s a reason for that! My first read-through, if I remember correctly, was at a time where I had just finished up on a production of Much Ado About Nothing. There were rumors in the department that our beloved Shakespeare director was going to tackle Richard III the coming fall. I quickly dove into the play with a dramatic fervor. We ended up doing Macbeth instead, which honestly isn’t much of a disappointment.

Back then, I had read maybe ten or so of the plays and Richard III still blew my mind. It caused me to feel so much. I couldn’t, and to an extent still can’t, figure out why on Earth Anne would fall for Richard’s seductions. Richard revolted and captivated me as a character that actively took charge of his fate. The scenes with Clarence were so utterly heartbreaking as it’s clear to the audience how duped Clarence has been.

This script goes beyond simple catharsis and release. It forces a reader or audience member into this state of excusing the things its protagonist does in order to cope with continuing the play. We must go along with Richard for the ride and we therefore become accomplices. At some point, and it’s different for everyone, we become fed up and switch to the Tudor cause. It’s much the same effect that the modern Breaking Bad had on its viewers. Some abandoned Walt when he started cooking meth, others when he watched a girl die, but others waited until he poisoned a child. Like Breaking Bad, this play possesses a need for moral ambiguity from those who take it in. It calls into question everything that makes us human, and leaves us broken and empty in its wake.

Characters:

9.0/10.0

Let’s make no mistake. Richard is probably Shakespeare’s best character on his own. You could make a case for Hamlet, but I’d argue that Hamlet’s power is in the way he depends on the characters around him. There is no “Get thee to a nunnery” without Ophelia, no “Fraility thy name is woman!” without Gertrude and no “Words, words, words.” without Polonius. Richard, for me, differs in that I feel like I could watch a one man show about him. It’s almost to the point that I get sad whenever other characters to show up to “ruin” the one-on-one aspect with Richard. He is a character that absolutely forces you to watch him. He is my absolute dream role, and there’s no getting around that. Were the rest of the characters completely flat and shallow, this play would probably still get six or seven character points on Richard’s behalf alone.

However, we’re lucky to be blessed with several other wonderful characters. Shakespeare did a particularly good job with the women. Elizabeth is emotional, but strong. She is an ultimate adversary for Richard, unable to be swayed like Anne. Speaking of Anne, she is almost enigmatic in her cooperation with Richard. The fact that Shakespeare doesn’t explicitly give us her reasons for falling in love with him makes her feel all the more deep. Richard’s mother, the Duchess of York, is a wonderful frame to view the fall of Richard’s status with his own family. Dicky was York’s golden boy, but now she wishes he’d never been born now that it’s peacetime. Then finally, there’s the ghostly former queen, Margaret. She’s a shell of her former self, but still so worth having around for her bitter jabs and curses.

Richard’s other principle victims are equally great to have around. Clarence brings a great bit of sadness to the play as we realize the real emotional consequences of Richard’s manipulation. We get this beautiful portrait of a man who is unable to atone for the betrayals of the all but forgotten War of the Roses. He is helpless and at the mercy of anyone who even pretends to care. Unfortunately for him, that person is Richard. Then we’ve got the nearly ever-loyal Buckingham. Like the audience, Buckingham goes along with Richard until it gets to be too much. I think most would agree that the time to abandon him is when Richard has his two nephews murdered, although I doubt that’s really the reason Buckingham ditches Richard due to the loss of what was promised to him.

All in all, the play is filled with deep and interesting characters that serve just about every purpose a character can serve. The only shortcoming is the amount of extra characters. One of my favorite film adaptations of any Shakespeare play is Richard III with Ian McKellen. You can tell that they agree that some characters are superfluous. In trying to keep with some shred of historical accuracy, Shakespeare includes far too many victims that, practically, serve the same purpose. Loncraine’s film rightly condensed all of the executed lords into Robert Downey, Jr. as Rivers. Many of the characters that come and go serve minimal purposes. But the ones that do matter, matter indeed.

Entertainment:

10.0/10.0

This play is so damn fun. It’s one of my number one plays that, when it catches my eye on the shelf, I just love to sit around and read it for a few minutes. In reality, I had done that many times since that read through back in 2012, but this week was the first time I had done it cover to cover. I can’t begin to count how many times I had reread the scene where Anne is seduced or Clarence’s dream and murder scene. I had recently become enamored with the scene near the beginning where Richard and Elizabeth and her allies all argue. It’s a gold mine of funny, heartbreaking or exciting scenes.

Language:

10.0/10.0

Let me admit it, here and now, I haven’t always cared all that much for soliloquies. I’d always felt as if they took a pause from the action, that we should just get on with it. Why must we dive that deep into the characters’ heads if it doesn’t affect the action of the story? That was until I discovered, through Richard, what a soliloquy could be. Now they excite me. The idea of making that connection with the audience, telling them all your plans and schemes and feelings, is so invigorating. It’s all due to Richard. It’s the way that he uses them to bring you into his world and commit his crimes along with him. That’s all through Shakespeare’s mastery of the soliloquy. The minute Ian McKellen looked dead into my eyes and told me that he was determined to play the villain and hate the idle pleasures of these days, I was sold. It’s been a journey ever since.

And that’s not to say that’s the only linguistic accomplishment. “Now is the winter of our discontent” is a powerhouse of sarcasm, and wit, and poetry. It’s one of the first soliloquies that I was able to tear open through the use of scansion. The insults in the play are so vivid and the language so representative of exactly what the characters are feeling. Shakespeare could not have written better words for these characters .

Total:

49.0/50.0

Richard III is everything that is great about Shakespeare. A captivating story featuring complex characters both evil and good written with language that speaks to the very heart of existence. It features one of the best roles in the pantheon of drama and utilizes him exactly as much as he should be utilized. He is put up against formidable adversaries of nearly equal complexity. The play transcends mere entertainment because it gets into the soul of the person watching it. What could possibly be better for theatre than that?

Who Would I Like to Play?

What a question, eh? First of all, Richard. Duh. That role is a long way off though. I have to get much better to be able to pull that off. Clarence is a close second. He’s a small role, but his influence reverberates throughout the entire play. Buckingham or any of the murderers would be great. Even Rivers or any of the others that are executed along side of him would be great. Give me Richmond too! I really would just be glad to participate.

Would I Like to Direct It?

Probably not as badly as I’d like to act in a production of it, but I think carving out the scenes of Richard talking with the audience would be more fun than I’d be allowed to have. There’s always so much going on in the play that I’d have a field day making it all happen. It’s also delicate due to there being so much that you have to keep track of conveying to the audience, but that’s a challenge I’d love to undertake!

NEXT WEEK: ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL