In Montana Shakespeare in the Parks' production of Richard III, Richard holds the severed head of Hastings whom he had just ordered killed. At the same time, Richard and his co-conspirator tried to convince the mayor (top, in black) that Hastings was plotting against the king.
Audience members brought their own chairs or blankets Aug. 26 to see Montana Shakespeare in the Parks on the lawn at Double Arrow.
Richard woos Lady Anne even as she is on her way to bury her husband whom Richard had killed. Despite what he says to her, he has already revealed to the audience he desires to wed her not out of love but for the furtherance of his plots to become king.
Richard, here newly crowned, often spoke to the audience to keep them aware of his plots and real intentions.
Calling him her "damned son," Richard's mother confronts him with all the murders he has committed and pronounces a curse upon him: "Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end; / Shame serves thy life and doth thy life attend."
SEELEY LAKE – An estimated 250-300 people set out their chairs and blankets on the Double Arrow Lodge lawn Aug. 26. Gathered in a semi-circle around the portable stage, they awaited the Montana Shakespeare in the Parks' (MSIP) production of Richard III.
Not considered one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, Richard III presents a number of staging difficulties. For one thing the unabridged play has an overlong run-time. Though Shakespeare compressed 14 years into five conspiracy-packed acts, the play still requires slightly more than three hours run time. In addition the play has a large cast – 41 named characters plus miscellaneous attendants, a crowd of citizens, and two opposing camps full of soldiers.
In the Director's Notes of the MSIP 2016 program, Director Kevin Asselin said because of these difficulties MSIP, which tours with only 10 actors/actresses, has avoided trying to stage Richard III. He finally decided to take up the challenge for the 2016 season because of the strong correspondences he found between Shakespeare's play and "our current political landscape."
Discussing Richard's ability to manipulate people to do as he wished, Asselin wrote: "We see this manipulative use of language every day in the way our political leaders aggressively fight to woo us, work to gain control, notoriety and ultimately our allegiance."
Of necessity Asselin used an abridged version of the play, cutting the time closer to two hours and reducing the named characters to a more manageable 21 – plus citizens, soldiers, etc. Under Asselin's direction, actor Sam Pearson portrayed a spirited, bombastic Richard whose opening monologue informs the audience, "I am determined to prove [myself] a villain."
Richard declares his actions are motivated by bitterness because of the congenital spinal deformity that made him "so lamely and unfashionable / That dogs bark at me as I halt by them."
Pearson kept Richard's deformity before the audience's eyes as he limped across the stage and up and down stairs, shoulder stooped, right leg turned inward and toe-balanced, shriveled right arm and hand held useless across his chest. To a Renaissance audience, Richard's misshapenness would have been a clear sign of heavenly disfavor.
Yet Richard does not hide from the audience his true motivations – greed and ambition. He orchestrates murder after murder on his way to gain kingship. All the while he tries to convince the citizenry that he is a devout man, more concerned with the needs of his soul than with worldly gain. He feigns unwillingness to accept the crown they offer and only reluctantly agrees to take the throne "to make England great again."
Even when Richard finally succeeds in becoming king, his plotting does not end. To solidify his claim to the throne he seeks to compel a marriage with his own cousin, whose young brothers he has just murdered. In the end Richard takes to the battle field against Henry, Earl of Richmond, who also has a hereditary claim on the English throne. Richard is killed, thus ending the Plantagenet dynasty, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII, ushering in the Tudor dynasty.
Shakespeare, writing his play when England was governed by Henry's granddaughter Queen Elizabeth I, found it politically expedient to portray Richard as "a hell-hound," "foul defacer of God's handiwork," "hell's black intelligencer."
Modern history has been kinder to Richard, absolving him of many of the crimes Shakespeare forced him to commit and questioning whether he actually instigated the deaths of the young princes in the tower.
MSIP's Richard III kicks off Alpine Artisans' 2 Valleys Stage 2016-2017 season. The next performance will feature the energetic Japanese drumming of Fubuki Daiko Oct. 18.
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