posted by Steven
November 3, 2009
Richard III is currently running at Stages Theatre in Fullerton, California. Here is a review of the performance sent to us by reader John Gaw:
“Crowning touches adorn ‘Richard III’ in Fullerton
Stages Theatre’s production is a genuinely exciting experience.
By ERIC MARCHESE
Special to the Register
While many audiences prefer to see Halloween-themed plays –- or at least those featuring blood and gore -– around this time of year, many would settle for a well-crafted character study, action tale or historical costume drama.
Shakespeare’s The Life and Death of King Richard III delivers all three rolled into one, as well as some blood and gore in a vibrant production at Fullerton’s Stages Theatre.
Brian Kojac not only directs brilliantly, but his portrayal of the misshapen, power hungry, bloodthirsty monarch is unshakable. Once you see his performance, you may never forget it, nor will you readily accept anyone else’s interpretation.
Kojac has trimmed away much of the text’s fat and, for good measure, inserted the last few dialogue passages of “King Henry VI, Part Three” as a prologue. Anyone still confused has no excuse – not with this setup nor Kojac’s extensive program notes.
To help the production’s running time clock in at well below three hours, Kojac has abbreviated the text. Happily, his directorial eye is a judicious one, leaving nothing essential on the cutting room floor.
While among Shakespeare’s earliest works, leaning more toward action than introspection while simplifying both the timeline and the character of Richard himself, this play, especially in Kojac’s hands, is riveting. His vision lends this story a magnificent sweep, his staging creating a monumental theater experience.
Richard tells us straight off that, embittered by his physical deformities, he intends to pursue a course of villainy. Raising skulduggery to an art form, he admits that he can “murder while I smile,” then piles corpse upon corpse in his quest for the throne.
Shakespeare describes Richard as having a crookback, lifeless right arm and a heavy limp. While both lead role and play could devolve into caricature, Kojac paints a rich, multilayered portrait of a man whose talent for treachery amounts to genius. As an actor, he luxuriates in the role’s evil, hissing his lines, working his mouth, his eyes darting to and fro, an ugly malice behind his every hearty chuckle.
Perhaps the next juiciest role to Richard is the Duke of Buckingham, who allies himself with Richard until he realizes, too late, how quickly one could fall out of the monarch’s favor and be put to death. Unctuous in speech and manner, Mike Martin’s Buckingham is often seen scheming with Richard as the two skulk about.
Once Richard double crosses brothers Edward (K.C. Mercer, double-cast with Jon Gaw) and George (Frank Tryon), leading Edward to have George imprisoned in the Tower of London, where Richard has him murdered, we see firsthand the lengths to which Richard will go to usurp the throne.
Among Richard’s earliest victims are the husbands of Queen Margaret (Katherine Prenovost, double-cast with Darri Kristin) and Lady Anne (Sabrina Cooke, double-cast with Sierra Kane). Prenovost and Cooke show their characters’ outrage over Richard’s actions – Cooke through Anne’s profound grief, Prenovost through Margaret’s candid warnings to others, even many years later, when imprisonment has left her bedraggled and half-mad.
Alas, well-crafted female roles are still a few years away for Shakespeare, lending these and the play’s few others a formulaic quality. For example, Richard’s mother, the Duchess of York (Dawn Doherty), is simply offended by his treachery, Doherty showing her stiff-necked pride and self-righteousness.
Not that it gets her anywhere, for Richard cares not what others think. When it becomes obvious that his supporters, those lobbying for him to seize the throne, are in the minority, Richard uses a nifty bit of reverse psychology to get his way.
Martin’s Buckingham aside, the male roles aren’t that much better scripted, serving only to either support or oppose Richard. Tryon is a jovial, supremely self-confident George, Duke of Clarence. Adam Poynter’s young Prince Edward is a priggish snob – that is, for the short time he’s on the throne before Richard questions his nephew’s lineage. Next stop? The Tower of London, of course.
The story’s real hero is the fair-haired, sturdy Michael Skinner as the young Earl of Richmond, who confronts Richard in the Battle of Bosworth Field and with a much smaller army, vanquishes him before being crowned King Henry VII – poetic justice for a tyrant whose rule is stained in blood.
Thanks to Laura Lynn Orlow’s sumptuous, finely-detailed costumes and the brilliant battles choreographed by Kojac and Mercer, “Richard III” has the look and feel of authenticity – thanks also, of course, to the Bard of Avon and a little help from a very small yet very mighty Fullerton theater troupe.”
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