Review: Richard III

Theatre: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Date of show: September 8, 2012

Director: Tim Carroll

Synopsis: The play centers on the Richard III, who's aim throughout the play is to become king.

tldr: Great actors, dry script, misplaced comedic moments. 

We saw our second Shakespeare play on Saturday the 8th. We saw Richard III, one of the histories. The show is generally considered his most popular history play, and is sometimes actually classified as a tragedy.

The big highlight of the show was the actor Mark Rylance, who played Richard. He's THE Shakespearean actor. He's very famous in theatre, but only really for Shakespeare. He's done other things, but he became famous for his Shakespearean work, and has just kept on doing it. He's incredible, and was one of the only great things about the show. 

This cast was an all-male company. Which was interesting to watch, and the men playing women were, for the most part, good. The actor playing Lady Anne (Richard's wife) was terrible as a woman, but was later good when he played a different male role. 

My biggest problem with the show was the script; I've always found the histories to be dry. I'm also not sure I like how Rylance interpreted Richard. He's usually played as a very dark character, but Rylance pulled out the humor in the show, which was nice until it interrupted the flow of a serious scene. That happened a number of times, and it was actually kind of bothersome because it always happened right when there was going to be a great, dramatic tension and then release, but the audience never quite got to the height of the tension because Rylance broke it. And so we never got any real emotional satisfaction or substance to the characters for the most part. 

The only character who I felt any great connection to was Queen Margaret, but it only came at the very end, when she was mourning the death of her children (remember that a man played the role). 

Unlike Taming of the Shrew, when I forgot how long we were standing and didn't even feel like my feet hurt because I was so engrossed in the show, I was acutely aware of how tired I was and how much I wanted the show to end. 

I think the director should have gone for more drama than comedy and allowed the audience to really connect with the actors, especially Rylance's Richard.