It’s great to dream of an era when actors with disabilities are hired very often and in so many different roles that others don’t have to discourage playing this. And, as his recently discovered skeletal analysis suggests, it is true that historic Richard probably suffered from scoliosis. Shakespeare, as I said before, was a poet, not an osteopath.
But what used to be the norm can now look like a form of discrimination against persons with disabilities. This work seeks to avoid it by providing Richard without any physical disability. When we despise his disability and mock his ugliness, other characters, and even himself, we are forced to treat ridicule figuratively by sensory evidence. (Richard, as we say, is morally like a toad, not physically.) And I usually look at familiar characters with unfamiliar skin. I enjoy being asked, but in this case the sidesteps block access to the deepest elements of the drama.
These elements maintain the otherwise irregular “Richard III” in the repertoire. The poetry is very inspiring and the question is clearly eternal. It is the same with our own leaders when there is a work that asks us if Richard’s evil is the product of his hatred of people, as opposed to his previous hatred of himself. Force to ask. You may be familiar with the scene where Richard ironically raises the Bible as a crowd cry to make him king in this season of our dissatisfaction.
You can’t ask these deep questions in this work, but there is still compensation. The staging itself is lovely, and the rotating circles of Myeong Hee Cho’s Gothic arch speed up the action, suggesting Richard’s relentless ascent and descent. (The arch is illuminated in beautiful pink and purple by Alex Jeinkle.) Dede Ayite’s witty mixed-age outfit is from Anne’s sticky trophy wife regalia to the fateful young prince’s sequin gold. Earn sociological points at a glance, up to your sneakers.
Shining is also part of the performer’s secondary role. This means all the roles in this play except Richard. Sanjit De Silva turns the king’s main enabler, Buckingham, into a bounced hype man full of immoral smoke around him. Paul Kneebank makes a strong impression as Richard’s brother George. George mistakenly believes he can speak his way from anything. And as Henry’s widow, Queen Margaret, Sharon Washington is brutal in efficiency that certain hatreds will soon become commonplace and that everyone on the road can become blisters, even themselves. It is shown by.
However, these coherently interpreted characters do not provide a coherent interpretation of a play that wobbles between shy controversy and a kind of Tudor snark. In that sense, “Richard III” may not be interpreted. Written to the royal sponsor of Shakespeare, a descendant of the victorious Richmond, its brilliance has always been tinged with the sour scent of publicity. Its acidity is not sweetened by the fact that a good person smells like a bad person to the modern nose. If historical plays cannot unravel what history itself leaves us confused, they should at least help us understand why.
Richard III
Until July 17th at the Dela Court Theater in Manhattan. publictheater.org.. Execution time: 2 hours and 40 minutes.
