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Richard III (Silents Now) @ York Theatre Royal

Regular readers may be interested to know that I manage the Twitter hashtag #shaxfilm, an open online extension of my third year specialist module on Screen Shakespeares. The first film we study on this module is Frank Benson’s 1911 Richard III, filmed at the (then) Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with a fixed camera, preserving …

Richard III @ Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse is advertising its new production of Richard III as the ‘first major staging’ since the discovery of the historical king’s body under that now-infamous car park in Leicester. While this seems a little ungenerous in its implications about Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, the joy of this production will be the chance to see the …

R-3: Hunchback or Hero? (Centre Five Productions) @ Leicester Guildhall

This is a direct reproduction of a review for Exeunt Magazine. As R-3: Hunchback or Hero? was being devised in London in August 2012, the bones of Richard III were discovered serendipitously in Leicester. The revival of the production in Leicester itself was inevitable, and the eerie setting of the Mayor’s Parlour at Leicester’s Guildhall …

Richard III (SATTF) @ The Tobacco Factory, Bristol

I’m on record (well, Twitter) as being relatively sceptical about the recent finds in Leicester. The convenience of the archaeological team setting out to find Richard and discovering the trench and skeleton more or less on the first day of digging strikes me as being rather convenient, and I’m inclined to exercise a healthy caution. …

Richard III @ Shakespeare’s Globe

It’s been a busy year for Richard III. Not only have the RSC and now the Globe exhumed him live onstage, but what may be his actual remains have been unearthed in a Leicester car park. With the Tobacco Factory and Nottingham Playhouse due to stage Shakespeare’s play in 2013, the play has entered a …

Richard III (Propeller) @ The Belgrade, Coventry

In stark contrast to last night’s interval concert, audience serenades and jovial banter, Propeller last night erected a stony wall between the audience and the stage. As Richard Clothier’s Richard delivered his "Was ever woman in this humour wooed?" speech, he limped about the stage and then paused. A woman in the front row was …

Richard III (RSC) @ The Courtyard Theatre: Highlights

The big finish! And, if I’m truly honest, it was a slightly disappointing end to the week. Not because of the company, who kept up the energy right to the end, but for two reasons. Firstly, Richard III is a play dominated by one performance. The wonderful thing about the Histories ensemble is that there …

Richard III: An Arab Tragedy (Al-Bassam Theatre) @ The Swan Theatre

The final ‘response’ play saw the hugely-respected Sulayman Al-Bassam theatre company coming to the Swan, presenting a reworked ‘Richard III’ that relocated the action to the contemporary Middle East, a world of oilfields, bickering clans, foreign policies and constant surveillance. It’s been hugely built up over the year, as a new RSC commission, and promised …

Richard III (RSC) @ The Courtyard Theatre

It’s impossible not to notice that, throughout all the publicity material, posters, press shots, reviews and everything else surrounding the fourth installment in Michael Boyd’s history cycle, there is only one face leering out. Despite the emphasis that this company has placed on ensemble playing, despite the universal praise for the all-round excellence of the …

Richard III (RADA) @ The Swan Theatre

The third Youth production, and the most ambitious so far- today saw RADA take on Shakespeare’s second-longest play with a cast of eleven and a 1 hr 45 minute running time, along with projections, recorded sound effects and lighting cues. There was one major reason why this wasn’t very good- the editing of the text …