Richard III

After the ridiculous pomp and ceremony of the most belated royal funeral in history, this stripped-back take on Richard III’s most infamous stage incarnation is refreshing. Lean and muscular, Christopher York’s version of Shakespeare’s manipulative, murderous monarch is a fighter, a man with no place in peacetime.

The award-winning Faction ensemble ditch props and scenery, and use their physicality to bring to life Richard’s treacherous ascent to the English throne, as he takes advantage of the turmoil left by a bitter civil war between the families of York and Lancaster.

The first half drags a little, as it takes the 19-strong cast a while to navigate the play’s knotty course between tragedy and pitch-black comedy. And York’s Richard, Duke of Gloucester, fades in and out of view. But it all snaps into focus once he has eliminated his rivals. There’s a standout moment of body horror as Richard’s victims crawl over him during a pre-battle nightmare.

Mark Leipacher’s insightful production throbs with tensions and murky motivations, as gender-blind casting reframes key relationships in newly intimate ways. The king’s physical deformity becomes part-psychological: York’s hunched posture worsens whenever he’s insulted. It’s a fascinating way of visualising his damaged, outsider status.

This production also brings to the fore the strength of the play’s central female characters. From Carmen Munroe’s superbly played Duchess of York and Kate Sawyer’s Queen Elizabeth (mother of the princes in the Tower) to Sakuntala Ramanee’s exiled Queen Margaret, their anger and grief in defiance of Richard is both deeply moving and empowering here.