PERFORMANCE MODULE

Subject: TEATRO INGLÉS S. XIX Y XX

Code: 14227 group: B

NPA: CL46706 Mª JOSEFA GÓMEZ GARCÍA

William Shakespeare. Richard III.

Chema Cardeña adaptation. ARDEN Company 20-10-2005 L’ALTRE SPAI.

Dramatis personae

The director has only kept nine from de nearly thirty personae on the original play. The most significant ones for the play to make sense:

Richard: hypocrite, cruel, perverse. Medium age, always wears black, ugly, deformed,

hunchbacked. Ironic when he speaks. Played by Juan Carlos Garés

Reina Elizabeth: Medium age, serene, thoughtful. Loyal to the king. Almost always

wears red dress. Played by Amparo Vayá.

Bukingham: handsome blond young man. It’s represented by a woman. Hypocrite,

Two face, ambitious, always wears brown. Played by Carol Linuesa

Ratcliff: young to medium age, Richard’s servent, blood-thirsty. Always wears black.

Played by Vicente Pastor.

Lady Anne: young good looking woman. Resentful, a bit hysterical, desperate, weak,

personality, like most women of the time needs the financial and physical

protection of a man. Always wears purple or lilac. Played by Esther

López.

Clarence: young handsome man, innocent and sweat. Wears green or blue. Played by

Ismael Carretero.

Hastings: mature man, honest, loyal to the king. Always wears light blue. Played by

Chema Cardeña

Reina Margaret: old woman, very resentful, speaks ill from almost everyone.

Always wears dark purple. Played by Laura Useleti.

Richmond: young handsome man. Wears blue or green. It’s the same actor

Plays Clarence. Now he speaks with French accent Played by Ismael

Carretero.

Regidor en escena: young man, discrete, silent. Almost as if he wasn’t there. Always

wears black. Played by Alonso Tadeo.

Plot

The Duke of Gloucester who will become Richard III began the play telling the audience about his horrible plots to become the King of England. He is the brother of the King Edward IV who is very ill at the beginning of the play. In between them there is another brother, George Clarence. Richard wants to make sure that Clarence doesn’t get to the throne. He has plotted something to cause a rift between the two brothers and Clarence is arrested in the tower. Ratcliff the slave of Richard kills Clarence following his orders. King Edward dies and the throne belongs to his son Edward V, but he is just a child whose protector is Richard. Soon Richard starts to plot against his nephew claiming that he is illegitimate. He proclaims himself King of England and latter on he commands to kill Edward. Queen Elizabeth is furious and sad. She has a daughter who Richard sees as a threat for him to the keep the throne and wants to marry her. Queen Elizabeth can’t accept that marriage. Instead she hands her daughter over to the Earl of Richmond. At the end Richard is killed by Richmond who becomes Enrich VII. Cardeña’s adaptation shows the play in one go, that is without marking the acts and scenes more than with the lights going off few seconds.

Space:

It’s an empty space which is meant to be inside the palace, the tower or wherever they are. The changes of scenery are made with the change of the light The succession of stenography is made taking off the lights.

Lighting:

The lighting is very important in this play. It makes the different decorates and marks the end of the scenes. It starts illuminating with a blurred spotlight from the top on each of the personae which are in a row resembling chest pieces. There are spotlights everywhere which keep changing colours.

Dressing:

Historical dressing, smart.

Atrezzo:

It is an minimalist empty space, there only are few things that come in and out on whiles carried by the Regidor en escena. Things like the throne, the bath where Clarence is killed, the scaffold and a big cross. Those are the only atrezzo that comes and goes in front our eyes.

Atmosphere in the theatre:

The public is quite serious and keeps quiet during the whole play. A exception for the moment when Queen Margaret explodes into spiking very ill about Richard. It is just before Clarence gets killed. The audience finds funny all the insults and objections that she makes and stars laughing. It is the only moment when I could hear the audience.

Personal opinion:

I quiet enjoyed the play mostly because the way they present it. I like the minimalist stage where the important figures are the actors. They interpret the play quiet well. Well enough to keep my attention although it is pretty difficult to me to relate with any of the characters or their circumstances, since they are showing me a story that happened in 1483 and all the characters come from the nobility class