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Playing November 2, 3, and 4 and 9, 10, and 11 in MIT's Kresge Little Theater |
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Fight choreography by Richard Hedderman
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Playing November 2, 3, and 4 and 9, 10, and 11 in MIT's Kresge Little Theater |
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Richard III and the unnatural state of evil
by Kurt Lancaster
Shakespeare's Richard III is a work of fiction. It is no more historically accurate than the film Shakespeare in Love. Why, then should we do this play? I believe, as in Shakespeare's other great works, that each one presents some universal truth about our society that is applicable to any age. For this reason, I'm not so interested in the particulars about the War of the Roses, that this play supposedly depicts.
At its heart, Shakespeare's Richard III is really an allegory warning us against placing trust in another's outward personality. The fictional character of Richard comes across as wanting to be everyone's best friend, but Shakespeare shows us what's underneath. The cause and nature of evil is difficult to ascertain -- but what is more insidious and even more difficult to understand is the evil that appears as your best friend, the one who dissimulates evil intentions: an enticement of good, an offer of protection, a promise for more power, while at the same time leading those who are not aware of the darker influence into a life confusion, fear, mistrust, and death.
I have resisted a straight-forward depiction of the text onstage, avoiding a historically-located moment in England's history. (Since the play isn't an accurate history, why pretend to make it so?) Furthermore, although the environment seems somewhat oriental, my purpose is to not historically re-located the action in a Nipponese samurai time-period, either. Instead, I desire to provide a space that is outside our every-day context. I want to place the audience into an otherworldly environment in order to depict the universal themes of the nature of evil in a dream-like state. I want to show that the desire for evil and its practice always, always, always ends in the perpetrator suffering, and eventual destruction, unless the errors of their ways have been corrected before it's too late. This is a historical fact that Shakespeare depicts in his play.
Personally, this has been a tough play to direct. With over thirty characters and only ten actors we have had a challenging six weeks. Would I do it again? Yes. Each and every one of these students -- under amazing pressure of MIT courses -- have sacrificed hours of study in order to share with you their love for Shakespeare. For that, I deeply appreciate each and every one of them.
As a side note, even though Shakespeare describes Richard as deformedly hunchbacked, this was not true. Instead of eliding this fact, I instead make Richard's skin color be a mark of difference. I leave others to draw their own conclusions.
Also, I have cut the play by about forty percent. It would take more than three hours to perform in its entirety, but we have cut this nearly in half, without sacrificing the heart of the story.
Good King Richard?
Richard III is the third son of Richard, Duke of York, and a descendent of King Edward III. When Richard is eight years old, his oldest brother, Edward IV, deposes King Henry VI and assumes the throne. Richard is appointed the Duke of Gloucester and sent to live with Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, for his education. While there, Richard meets Warwick's daughter, Lady Anne, who he eventually marries. Some historians speculate that Richard and Anne had something of a 'childhood romance' long before they were married.
While Richard is with the Nevilles in Yorkshire, Edward IV marries a commoner named Elizabeth Woodville and then forbids Richard and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, from marrying the Earl of Warwick's daughters. George disregards his brother an marries Anne's older sister, Isabel. Shortly afterwards, George and Warwick join in rebellion against Edward, form an alliance with ex-Queen Margaret of Anjou (the queen of Henry VI), kill Queen Elizabeth's father and brother, and restore Henry VI to the throne. Edward and Richard are forced to flee the country for a short time, but then they reconcile with George and the three brothers join to overthrow Henry VI again in the battle at Barnet. (Richard Neville dies in this battle.) Shortly afterwards, Henry VI's son, Edward, is killed in the battle of Tewkesbury.
After Edward IV's restoration to the throne, George assumes responsibility for Lady Anne Neville, nominally because he's married to her sister Isabel, but also because he's nervous about sharing the Neville inheritance, especially with his brother Richard. George hides Anne in a London cook shop disguised as a servant. Richard finds her and places her in sanctuary of St. Martin Le Grand, where she is safe from George and under no obligation to Richard. After a legal struggle with George, Richard and Anne are allowed to marry. They do, and move to Middleham, where, a year later, Anne gives birth to a son, Edward. For twelve years, Richard governs northern England, where he earns a reputation for fairness and incorruptibility.
Six years after Richard and Anne are married, Isabel dies in childbirth. George accuses one her servants of poisoning her and executes the servant without Edward's permission. Edward imprisons George for this crime and sentences him to death. Richard comes to court to argue in vain for his brother's life. Five years later, Edward dies, leaving his son, Edward V, as his heir. Richard is the appointed protector of Edward V, but the Woodvilles want control of the throne. William Hastings, Edward IV's Lord Chamberlain, informs Richard of Edward's death and warns him that the Woodvilles are conspiring against him. Richard travels to London with his cousin, Henry Stafford, the Duke of Buckingham, where he arrests some of the Woodvilles and assumes custody of Edward V. Elizabeth flees with her other children into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Edward's brother, Richard, leaves Westminster to be with his brother before his coronation.
While preparing for Edward's coronation, Richard discovers a plot against him led by Hastings, who is arrested and executed. Shortly afterwards, Robert Stillington reveals that Edward IV had been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler before marrying Elizabeth and, therefore, Elizabeth's children were all illegitimate. With Edward V declared an illegitimate heir, Richard, as Edward IV's brother, is the next in line for the throne. Richard is consequently crowned and assumes the throne.
As king, Richard brings many beneficial changes to England. He prohibits taxing the importation of books. He commands that laws be written in English rather than Latin so the common people can understand their own laws. He outlaws forced gifts of money to the crown, initiates a relay postal system, gives money to poor students, and starts the system of bail.
Richard's reign, however, is fraught with personal tragedy. The October after his coronation, Richard discovers that Buckingham is plotting against him, and Buckingham is captured and executed for treason. That spring, Richard's son, Edward, dies. A year later, Anne dies of tuberculosis. Richard is accused of poisoning Anne in order to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York, but he publicly denounces this as a rumor.
Meanwhile, Henry Tudor, the heir to the Lancaster line, wins support of the French king and organizes an army against Richard. They meet in battle at Bosworth Field, where Richard is betrayed by the Duke of Northumberland and Lords Thomas and William Stanley. Contrary to the play, when Richardms horse is killed under him, he refuses the offer of another horse. Crying "Treason! Treason!", he rushes at the Tudor army and is killed by a blow to the head, which smashes his helmet and knocks off his crown, which, according to legend, comes to lie under a hawthorn bush. Richard III is the last English king killed in battle.
After Richard's death, Henry assumes a tenuous hold on the throne. Because his reign is weak, Henry employs all sorts of tactics to rewrite history in his favor. He attempts to backdate his reign to before the battle at Bosworth in order to claim that the men who fought for Richard had committed treason. He also paints Richard as a villain, a tyrant, and has his historians write English history so that Henry saves England from disorder, bloodshed, and evil under the rule of Richard III. The deformity in the portrait of Richard from the royal collection in Windsor castle has recently been discovered to be a later alteration -- the real Richard had no physical deformities.
Unfortunately, the Tudor account of Richard has become ingrained in our history books and even in our art, as this play illustrates. The real Richard -- the just ruler, the good husband and brother, the brave soldier -- is lost in politics. As Sir Clements Markham stated, "The true picture of our last Plantagenet king is not unpleasant to look upon, when the accumulated garbage and filth of centuries of calumny have been cleared off the surface."
-Abby Spinak
Act.Scene
1.1 - Richard deceives brother, George, Duke of Clarence
1.2 - Richard woos Anne
1.3 - Family feud and the curse of Margaret, the former queen ousted from power
1.4 - Clarence murdered
2.1 - Edward, the king, (Richard and Clarence's eldest brother) has everyone
make the peace
2.3 - Citizens discuss the death of the king and wonder who will replace him
2.4 - A messenger warns Queen Elizabeth (Edward's wife) that Richard and
Buckingham are moving against her
3.1 - Richard and Buckingham plot against Hastings, Edward's Chamberlain
3.2/4 - Catesby, Richard's henchman's, sounds out Hastings about Richard
becoming king and Hastings says, "Over my dead body." Richard contrives his
crippling "difference" as the result of Edward and Hasting's plot, and orders
the death of Hastings.
3.6 - A scribe realizes the plot against Hastings was planned ahead of time:
Hastings was innocent.
3.7 - Without support from the Mayor and citizens, Buckingham convinces Richard
to pretend that he doesn't want the throne, while Buckingham convinces the
Mayor the Richard is a man of God. In the end, Richard "relents" and he is
robed King of England.
INTERMISSION
4.2 - Richard, afraid that his young cousins, the sons of Elizabeth, might
someday take the crown, asks Buckingham to kill them. He refuses and instead
asks Richard for his reward in helping him become king. Richard refuses to
grant Buckingham's request and decides to hire Tyrell, a gentleman to kill
the children.
4.3 - Tyrell repents for what he has done.
4.4a - Richard asks Elizabeth to help him woo her daughter, the young
Elizabeth.
4.4b - Messengers warn Richard that Richmond is preparing for battle.
5.3-5 - Richard and Richmond prepare their troops for battle. That night they
are visited by the ghosts of Clarence, Hastings, Anne, and Buckingham. In the
morning the battle begins and Richmond stands the victor, beginning England's
Tudor dynasty, which gave us the age of Shakespeare.