Student: José Martínez Hernández e-mail: jomarhe5@alumni.uv.es

English Philology. First cicle, first course.

English Theatre XIX & XX Centuries Group B ( evenings ).

Play: R III ( a reduced version based on William Shakeaspeare's Richard the third ), adapted and directed by Chema Cardeña, produced by Arden Producciones.

Date and place of representation. Valencia, Friday, 4th of november 2005. Theatre " L´Altre Espai".

The main characters are:

Richard of Gloucester: The main one, a terribly mean man that is capable of anything to achieve power and became King. He has a hunchback, with a motionless arm, limping, and so ugly and deformed that even the dogs bark at him. During the play it is said about him to have been brought up without afection nor tears.

He is very inteligent, he likes conspiring, and in spite of being ruthless and cruel, if it suits its purposes he is well capable of presenting himself like the poor victim of the fatalities he has previously caused. He becomes trumps for a while, so much that he evens gets a mirror, but later he gets what he deserves.

Queen Elizabeth ( Red dress ): Portrayed as an honest woman that did nothing wrong in order to sit on the trone, but even so is enjoying the results, reason why the profecy hits her. She is brave enough not to bend to the desires and menaces of Richard.

Buckingham ( a character of a man performed by a woman ) the elegant soldier, cousin of Richard. They are on the same side at the beggining, which Ratcliff does not like at all, but later he demands Richard for the promised, Richard tells him to go away and that relationship breaks.

Ratcliff. A servant that gets the favors of Richard serving him in the meanest way, never mind if he has to kill. In fact, he dislikes Buckingham because is competition for the favours of Richard, and when the executioner is about to kill Bucky, Ratcliff grabs the axe to kill him himself.

Lady Anne. A woman that seems to have been borne to suffer and to feel guilty. First, widow of K.Eduard Lancaster, killed by Richard. And next, surprisingly she marries his husband's killer ( in a change of attitude towards Richard that is too fast and not very understandable ). Later on will she will be as well killed by Richard.

Clarence George, duque of Clarence, brother of Richard. It is shown in the transparent bathtub where it is killed by Rattcliff as a man with nightmares, ill and defenseless.

Richmond Henry Tudor, duque of Richmond. Portrayed as an honest man that speaks the truth and prays to God ( in French ). He fights Richard and kills him.

Hastings. Sir Williams Hastings. Prime Minister and Chamberlain. He is portrayed as naive, since he is convinced of the need of grabbing the children from security, what leads to their death.

Queen Margaret D' Anjou. She is the old queen whose power was grabbed, and she was thrown out and exiled. She suffered a lot and she came back to throw her terrible prophecies.

The plot. Richard conspires to grab power from their brothers, with an unusual meanness, probably helped by the fact that nature made him so imperfect that he is eager to show his worse side. He is the living face on the worse sense of the sentence " the end justifies the mean ". In his pursue for power Richard kills many people, his brothers, the King, Anne, the king's children ( a very common thing in that epoque, the best insurance of the dynasty not coming back to power ). Richard Kills Eduard Lancaster, and among the grief of his widow Anne, and in order to achieve power, convinces her that her beauty is to blame for what he has done and that she should marry him. She curses everything ( even herself ), and maybe because of that, she agrees to marry Richard ( the worst possible curse becomes real ). Richard convinces sir William Hastings of the need of taking away the children from a safe place, what he agrees, and then they are killed, too.

Having getting rid of nearly everyone on sight, Richard conceives the way of securing his staying in the throne. Richard kills Anne and menaces Queen Elizabeth with killing her daughter if she does not convince her daughter to marry him.

Elizabeth is brave and intelligent and fools Richard agreeing, but later on marries her daughter with the french Henry Tudor, who with his army will fight Richard. Oddly, Richard that cares absolutely about nothing, seems to care about her mother, and her mother opinion and blessing. Her mother is only a reference in the play, but an important one, as the only thing that has some influence on Richard, or the only thing he fears or he is worried about. But the more he keeps walking life's bad path, the more her mother turns her back on him. And for Richard's end fighting against Richmond, a twist not very expected; he affronts with a bit of courage his final moment.

Finally honesty prevails over evil.

Sort of a backbone in the play are the pain, and the prophecies, the curses. It seems that only the people that have suffered a lot will be capable of casting curses on someone. Thus Anne, Queen Elizabeth and most of them all, Queen Margaret, are the cursing characters. Margaret comes from exile only to cast the curses on everyone ( Richard, Ratcliff, Anne, also but not that harsh on Buckingham in spite of him making fun of her, even on Queen Elizabeth, that is not mean but has to suffer child loss for enjoying the benefits of Margaret's suffering after being thrown out of power and sent to exile.

And step by step the cursing prophecies come true, like if it was already written in the life's book. That is what seems to represent the omnipresent little red book in the play, that is not only used to link scenes by connecting the last paragraph of a character and the first of the next, but as well it is used as sort of a missal, and even a character holds it in front of him like his face. Queen Margaret carries that book hanging from a rope she has tied around her waist, probably showing the idea of carrying a burden ( maybe that burden is the killing of a child ).

During all the play, the sounds are impressive. Good quality sound, either for gregorian or other music, or for the many times that are heard, along the pace of the action and killings, the noises and roars of a beast. The one many characters seem to have within.

The lighting was good, hard light on the actors in order to get long and spooky shades. Lighting was used as to draw a corridor of light on stage and as well to simulate the settings of the forest. Used with shady blue tones in the proximity of final death.

The way the characters spoke was really first class one. Very literate some times but very clear and understandable. Particularly good, Richard, whose tone of voice range from the cruellest arrogance to the humbleness according to the moment.

The dresses were sort of historical, but fell a bit short on quality for what one would expect in such good play.

The atrezzo in general was correct, not excessive, and too modern looking for what one would desire. Atrezzo with wheels is very handy, but not good looking. There were walking sticks ( all different ) that characters not only used to wear, but to show anger or resolution hitting the floor with them. The transparent bathtub is a good feature; reflects nicely the light, and useful to see the " blood" after the killing.

There is also remarkable the big cross that Richards angrily beats his hand.

The scenic space was a living thing, with sometimes all characters using it, wanting it, moving in several ways, sort of a ritual of the pieces of a jigsaw, or living pieces of a chessboard.

A pity the theatre was not bigger, and that the bare walls painted in black, since for this kind of play the ideal would be the traditional theatre with walls dressed in red velvet. On the other hand, the theatre being small was good for catching the nice smell of burning wax from the candles on stage.

The public, that filled completely the auditorium, applauded a lot and the actors had to come many times to the stage.

Classical Shakespearean theatre with good actors, always a winner.