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RICHARD III
November 9—12 at 7:00 McKenzie Theatre Written by William Shakspeare Directed by Kenn Wheeler You could put together a real rogue's gallery of memorable villains from Shakespeare's plays: Iago, Lady MacBeth, Claudius, Regan and Goneril. Yet can any compare to that master of mischief, Richard III? It's the 1480s, and England's bitter War of the Roses is finally at an end. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, remains sore. He may have helped his brother Edward to the throne, but now he wants it all. So he plots to do away with his brothers, nephews, and all else in his path. Yet his success will prove his undoing in this complicated morality tale. What makes "Richard III" so great, beyond the fantastic language, satisfying comeuppances, and the luminous brutality of the main character is that he's really not in it for the crown, but the evil he can do in pursuit of the crown. Hurting people, whether for gain or revenge, is his only joy in life, and his appetite proves his ruin. Centuries before modern psychology, Shakespeare seemed to have a handle on the concept of pathology and the criminal mind. |
