Richard III

Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s plays are not often performed locally, which is a great shame, so I was looking forward to this production with interest.  I had forgotten so much about the play as the last time I had any contact with it was when I was a senior school and that is far too many years ago to own up to!

It started well, with David Waters playing Richard, Duke of Gloucester.  He showed the malignance of the character quite subtly at first.  But as the play progressed, his character became more and more cunning, and he displayed a complete disregard for anyone else.  Beautifully played and very compelling.

The cast list provided to me gave me little opportunity to identify many of the actors but every single one of them played their parts strongly and with passion.  Those who doubled up their characters produced quite different characterisations, so the story was completely understandable.  It seems unfair to even try to identify individual actors, but I was impressed with Colin Richardson who played the Duke of Buckingham and Charlii Richardson who, not only played Lady Anne well, but took on 2 other roles at very short notice.  The fact that, as far as I was concerned, she didn’t miss a beat in her delivery is testament to her hard work and dedication.

In fact, if any of the cast got their dialogue wrong, I was not aware of it, such was the professionalism of them all.  This is a small theatre and none of the cast were mic’d.  The younger (maybe newer) members of the cast could have done with projecting more but the seasoned actors all projected and we were able to follow the story easily.

Performed in modern dress but faithfully following the Bard’s original setting this was a well-directed and well performed production.

The play used projected backdrops, some of which were beautiful line drawings and all of which gave the play a subtle hint of the location.  Unfortunately, the projector ‘throw’ meant that we saw some of projection on the cast as they entered at the back of the stage.  But honestly, it did not detract from the performance, and I can honestly say I was spell bound for most of the time.

It was a real treat to see this play, the second longest in the Shakespeare catalogue, and I look forward to this company’s next production.

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