chamber RICHARD III

by William Shakespeare • Directed by Gregg Loughridge

 

PRODUCTION NOTES

 

From Director Gregg Loughridge

Somewhere in the mid 1980’s, while working as an actor in a Shakespearean repertory company, I was cast in Richard III. Not as the title character, but in one of the smaller roles. And though I was familiar with the old theater axiom that there are no small actors, only small roles - I mean, no small roles only small actors. I was, that summer, in three other productions where I had leading parts. I could have used the time elsewhere, and I was not pleased.

To top it off, the director of the show (a very nice man from the RSC) had the great idea of having all the people that Richard kills, stand motionless in the theater’s inner above for the entire last half hour of the show. What I remember from that production 20 years later, aside from some very funny sotto voce conversations about sleeping audience members, was listening to Richard’s nightmare speech over and over again. A speech that I’d never paid much attention to and could never remember from any of the other productions I’d seen.

Another thing that happened, due to the vagaries of repertory company casting, was that the man playing Richard turned out to be a much less “seasoned” actor then those who were playing Hastings, Rivers, Buckingham, Margaret and the Queen. What happened then, quite by accident, was that the Richard character got overshadowed by the rest of the court which resulted in a much more interesting journey for the title character. That Richard, rather then being totally in control as usually played, was marginalized and had to work to make any gains.

Therein lies the seeds of this production.

For those who have never seen Shakespeare’s Richard III before, I hope you are in for a treat because it’s a great story. It is also, normally, four hours long. (This show, God willing, should be considerably less).

This is also a chamber production with only 7 live actors and certain liberties have been taken that would not occur in a textbook version. It also employs a new addition to the traditional theater design team: the digital imaging and video artist.

And last but not least, there is no sword play. I just did not want to attempt
a seven person battle no matter how remarkable. What I hope we have attained here tonight, is something of the moral equivalent.

Thanks for taking a look.

 

Climbing the Staircase - by Dramaturg Megan Smithling

“The King is dead, Long live the King!”

Each of Shakespeare’s history plays begins with the coronation of a new monarch or the struggle following a reigning monarch’s untimely death. Often, the newly crowned king drags behind him a long chain of crimes. In his struggle to maintain order, the monarch murders his enemies, and often, in a fit of paranoia, his former allies. In the guise of stability, he executes possible successors to the crown. But of course, he misses one. From the wings, a new claimant to the crown appears. And it begins again. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the plays apart; and you’d need a scorecard to track the major players.

“Feudal history is like a great staircase on which there treads a constant procession of kings” remarks noted critic Jan Kott in his essays on Shakespeare’s Histories. “Even their
names are the same. There is always a Richard, and Edward, and a Henry. They have the same titles. There is a Duke of York, a Prince of Wales, a Duke of Clarence. In the different plays different people are brave, or cruel, or cunning. But the drama that is being played out between them is always the same.”

“Every step upwards is marked by murder, perfidy, treachery. Every step brings the throne nearer. Another step and the crown will fall. One will soon be able to snatch it. From the highest step there is only a leap into the abyss. The monarchs change. But all of them—good and bad, brave and cowardly, vile and noble, naïve and cynical—tread on
the steps that are always the same.”

Kott outlines the cyclical nature of Shakespeare’s Histories in his classic work Shakespeare Our Contemporary, interpreting Shakespeare in the light of the philosophical, existential and political experience of the twentieth century, and drawing parallels between Shakespeare’s political milieu and the experiences of contemporary citizens of totalitarian countries. Although myriad interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays abound, Kott’s perspective is particularly relevant to this production. Comparisons between the current political climate and Shakespeare’s play are inevitable, according to Kott—“Shakespeare is like the world…each historical period finds in him what it is looking for, and what it wants to see.” The essence of Richard III, as boiled down for Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Chamber Series, focuses on the consequences of constantly questing for power. Good and bad become relative terms, and history appears doomed to repeat itself, whether on the battlefield or (in our case) the campaign trail.