“Richard III” at Shakespeare & Company is a Mixed Blessing 

 David Begelman , Theater Critic 

By any accounting, the anti-hero of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” is a cut apart from the playwright’s other villains.

Unlike Iago in “Othello” whose villainy smacks of smoldering resentment, Richard knows he is bad news in the realm he will eventually rule. In asides to the audience, he celebrates his infamous deeds with rave reviews about what an accomplished performer he is at murder, hatching plots, and all-around conniving.

 Richard’s down and dirty tricks, even as they become apparent to his victims across five acts, is a triumph of insouciance. Fancied enemies are dispatched breezily. They include wives, former accomplices in treachery, family members, even two innocent children he contrives to murder in the Tower of London.

Richard’s bloodthirsty career unfolds in installments that betray his resolution “to prove a villain,” as if no other role would be suitable for a deformed schemer who admits he “was sent into this breathing world scarce half made up.”

Richard III, in Shakespeare’s play as well as in real life, was the last English king to die on the battlefield. He was deposed by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, whose family line later included Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s sovereign. The play’s depiction of Richard’s character may therefore be tinctured with the political biases of an age that even the playwright himself was not above mirroring.

Shakespeare & Company’s staging of Richard III, the most performed of the bard’s histories, has both its attractive and less compelling aspects. John Douglas Thompson in the title role has a commanding stage presence, although his interpretation places more emphasis on a ham-fisted, aggressive approach to dealing with fancied enemies, than it does on a portrayal laced with the oily subtlety that is also one of his character’s prominent traits.

Director Jonathan Croy staged battle scenes between armies with the usual excitement we have come to expect from Shakespeare & Company. Other distractions in an otherwise gripping production included minor characters like Richmond (Andy Talen) and the Bishop of Ely (Wolfe Coleman) seeming too youthful for the august roles they were meant to depict, while several walk-on portrayals seemed stilted.

Actresses in the roles of leading female characters, like Elizabeth Ingram (Queen Margaret), Tod Randolph (Queen Elizabeth), and Leia Espericueta (Lady Anne) while putting in charismatic and arresting portrayals, tended at times to become histrionic, as though they were overdrawn characters by Sophocles.

In Act II, the ruse on the part of Richard and his subsequently betrayed co-conspirator, Buckingham (Nigel Gore), enlisted audience participation in building up enthusiasm to elect Richard to the throne. The conceit is a novel one in productions of the play, although it took the form of rabble-rousing, shouting, and working the crowd up to a frenzied pitch, rather than being a subtle seduction of public sentiment. Audiences will have to judge which approach is preferable.

Shakespeare & Company deserves credit for mounting a revered drama of the incomparable playwright. Despite some weaknesses, its production of “Richard III” makes worthwhile summer fare—whatever the winter of our discontent.

‘Richard III’ runs until September 5 at The Founders’ Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MASS. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $15-$85, and can be purchased by calling the box office at (413)-637-3353, or contacting www.shakespeare.org