[NEohioPAL] Review of "Richard III" at Great Lakes Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Great Lakes succeeds with shortened, highly stylized 'Richard III'

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 10/4/13

 

 

Shakespeare wrote ten plays about the English kings who reigned during the Hundred Years War with France.  Each one seems to require either an encyclopedic knowledge of Medieval English history or an extensive cheat sheet to work your way through the many names, nicknames and ever-changing titles of its large ensemble of players. 

 

"Richard III," currently on stage at Great Lakes Theater, has an added wrinkle in that it is the final play in a series that covers the battle for the throne between the families York and Lancaster.  Much of this play's back story and many of the characters referenced in its text reside in Henry VI (Part 1), Henry VI (Part 2), and Henry VI (Part 3), so a familiarity with those plays is an additional prerequisite.  

 

This is also the longest of Shakespeare's history plays, clocking in at over 4 hours if staged in its entirety.  So it is intimidating to boot.

 

Fear not.  "Richard III" and all of Shakespeare's history plays are historically inaccurate affairs, written to appeal to the period's finicky audience and appease the existing monarch.  These are highly romanticized dramas built, primarily, to entertain.  They also tend to get edited down and contemporized with each telling, to better appeal to modern-day sensibilities.

 

Great Lakes Theatre is the master of modification and modernization.  For this production of "Richard III," the script has been significantly cut for greater expedience, restructured for enhanced comprehension, restaged in a contemporary setting to facilitate relevance, and performed with remarkable skill and artistry.

 

Purists will see all these alterations as blasphemous; the rest of us will simply thank director Joseph Hanreddy as we leave the theater at a reasonable time and after being thoroughly entertained. 

 

"Richard III" follows the exploits of Richard Plantagent, who would become Richard, Duke of Gloucester and, through murder and marriage most foul, end up as King Richard III.   As do all of Shakespeare's histories, this one begins with a struggle for the crown, is followed by murder, disloyalty and betrayal, and ends with the fellow whose name is in the title being assassinated or imploding under the pressure of the job or his own demons.  Richard hits the trifecta in his dramatic demise.

 

Lynn Robert Berg plays the title character and is superb.  He is deliciously villainous, bringing to life all that is simultaneously appealing and appalling about Richard.  From the opening moment of the play - when Berg boldly steps forward to reveal his character's ambition and put on display the twisted body that serves to represent his twisted soul - he owns the audience.  

Berg is surrounded by a stellar cast, with particularly stand-out performances turned in by Darren Matthias as Richard III's brother King Edward IV, Sara M. Bruner as Edward's wife Queen Elizabeth, David Anthony Smith as the Duke of Buckingham, and Laurie Birmingham as Queen Margaret, the prophetic widow of King Henry IV.  One of the play's most mesmerizing scenes includes Birmingham's Queen Margaret, Bruner's Queen Elizabeth, and Lenne Snively's Duchess of York - the three women most tortured by Richard's evil existence - as they gather to curse his name.

Many of the supporting performers take on two roles in this production, but one character operates with a conscience while the other one does not, so they are easily distinguishable even though they share the same face.  An excellent Tom Ford, for instance, plays Lord Hastings, who remains loyal to Edward IV against Richard's wishes, as well as Sir James Tyrrel, the murderer Richard hires to kill his two young cousins.  

The play is set in modern times and staged within a cold glass and chrome corporate headquarters, designed by Linda Buchanan.  The corporate logo, which bears the brand of the current king, changes with each assassination.  Each of the many assassinations and executions in this play is stylishly represented rather than dramatically enacted. They are nicely accentuated with macabre lighting and sound designed by Michael Chybowski and the team of Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, respectively. 

In a gruesome coincidence, it was recently reported that the actual bones of Richard III were accidently unearthed beneath a car park in Leicester, England.  To see his dramatically re-envisioned flesh and blood, go to PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre through November 3.

 

For tickets to "Richard III," which range from $15 to $70, visit www.playhousesquare.com or call 216-241-6000.
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