RIII
Based on Richard III of William Shakespeare
By Arden Producciones
20th October. Theatre L’altre Spai, Valencia
Characters:
Richard: The characterization of Richard as a short, lame and dishevel-haired man gave us the image of a strange creature, dominated by the ambition. The actor who played Richard, Juan Carlos Garés, expressed himself with a strong and firmly voice, helped by his great vocalization and his fast movements which reflected perfectly Richard’s temperament.
Lady Anne: Dressed in pink, Esther López acted like Lady Anne would do; with fragility and youngish vulnerability. The moments of pain and the changes in attitude were very believable also.
Queen Elizabeth: The actress Amparo Vayá, in a red dress, walked with all the dignity of a highness; but also did it very well with pain and frustration feelings, showing us all the fears that Queen Elizabeth felt in different situations.
Queen Margaret: Although the actress who interpreted her, Laura Useleti, was so much younger, she acted with amazing credibility. She imitated the movements and shakes from an old lady. The pauses in the speech and her tone showed the difficulty that Queen Margaret had to talk. Her decrepitude was reflected greatly.
Clarence/Richmond: As Clarence, the actor Ismael Carretero, played a young and scared man, afraid of hat could happens to him. Despite of it, Richmond’s characterization was less dramatic and more faked because of the French accent.
Buckingham: The actress Carol Linuesa did a great job performing this character, copying men’s manners and acting as self confident, and arrogant as a man like Buckingham would do.
Ratcliff: An ambitious and egoist man played by Vicente Pastor, who transmitted Radcliff hate through his own eyes.
Space:
The most important on this play was characters performances and their dialogues, so the scenario was simply left in the dark, with almost no relevance. However, we know that the play was conceived as a representation of English royalty, so we can easily imagine this representation in and English background full of medieval castles and green fields.
Lights:
Intensity was shown by yellow, orange and red lights over the actors at the beginning of the play. A central light pointed to actors during a monologue or during secret dialogues. Lateral lights illuminated a whole group of actors during important conversations or facts. The darkness was used as a dramatic element to symbolize evilness and as a representation of the night.
Clothing:
Their clothes were very simple and not ostentatious at all, but representative enough to let us understand which kind of character played every actor. There were also few accessories. Every actor had just the necessary elements like Richard and his crown or handkerchiefs in the case of the suffering Queen Elizabeth or Lady Anne.
Decoration elements:
They used no more than needed elements like the throne, the bath, a table and a giant metal cross. Every element made of metal and very basically constructed.
Audience reaction or incidents:
During the performance, the audience centred their attention in the play and at the end, everyone reacted as expected, with a big ovation, cheering and applauding the actors and this play adaptation.
Personal point of view:
This adaptation of a Shakespearean play was centred in the human aspect. Every actor played his role in a convincing way and the almost absence of decoration kept off any kind of distraction. The plot wasn’t interrupted by any kind of military aspects like battles or war tactics which was a relief. The setting based on the emotions were amazing like when the lights made us feel fear or when the sound effects gave us the idea of the danger to come.
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ivonne Pamela Landázuri
ilanbe@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press