Streamed Shakespeare’s latest online drama takes us headlong into the Machiavellian schemes of the much-maligned Richard III. While there are certainly revisionist views of the last of the Plantagenet kings, it’s fair to say the Bard was not a fan. Or at least, he knew how to play to the new Elizabethan dynasty’s vanity. This Richard is mad, bad and dangerous to know, wickedly so.
Which makes the history play all the more gripping, with its unbridled ambition, kidnapped children and bloody familial murder. The final act of the War of the Roses, it casts Sydney actor Charles Mayer as the overreaching king, with Kiwi Jess Loudon as Queen Elizabeth (not that one, Woodville). The pair teamed up IRL for the Pop-Up Globe’ performance over the ditch (when skipping over there was a thing) in 2018.
Richard III is all about power, says director Jamie Collette, who took on Streamed Shakespeare’s digital delivery of As You Like It and Julius Caesar as well. “Everybody wants it. Only Richard of Gloucester is willing to devour his own family one by one to take it. And eventually, it devours him too. The meteoric rise of a narcissistic, unscrupulous, and cruel despot is unfortunately far too familiar in our current global political climate.”
Streamed Shakespeare’s previous show, The Merchant of Venice, was tuned into from as far afield as the United States, Germany and Finland.
You can book tickets for the live streams of Richard III here. It opens with a matinee on October 16th at 11.30am, followed by an encore on Saturday, October 17 at 7pm and Sunday, October 18 at 2.00pm (or you can buy the on-demand video from October 25). So while we’re barrelling towards long summer nights, why not linger a while in Richard’s winter of discontent?
Murder on your mind? Join Hugo Weaving and Wayne Blair in Wonnangatta.
