Reece Dinsdale’s tour de force performance in Richard III (opening the Autumn season) at The West Yorkshire Playhouse is impressive with a quirky, menacing physicality and affected speech. It is played with consistent intensity throughout the duration of this, one of the longest of Shakespeare’s plays. Richard almost meets his match in the powerful portrayal of Queen Margaret by Jane Bertish. Although her protestations are short-lived, yet her curses live on to haunt Richard’s destiny.
Set in the austerity of an enormous grey-tiled cyclorama suggestive of a cross between prison, autopsy room and abattoir, the scene is set for a seemingly endless succession of clinical despatches at Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s behest. The meticulous cleaning procedure that the audience witnesses pre-beginning of the play is indicative of what is to come. The remote yet beckoning glitter of the English crown awaits, in this corpse strewn processing plant. Imaginative use is made of three concentric circular lighting rings which are raised and lowered over the action. These work as metaphorical devices and to suggest the re-setting of place.
This is a play of ‘two halves’; From Act 1, the immediate encounter of Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s direct address to the audience is all at once informative and shocking in its content and revealed intentions. The onlookers are made only too well aware of what the night’s events will hold as the plot unfolds. We are set up with an anticipation of the subsequent relentless catalogue of power-game atrocities committed by the scheming and blatantly evil Richard. The tyrant could be seen as an aspiring ‘top-dog’ reminiscent of the more recent, fictitious character of Frank Underwood in the Netflix Television Series, House of Cards.
The second half of the performance contains a welcome addition of comedy, especially at the beginning, with Ben Addis’s cleverly intriguing and engaging portrayal of Buckingham. He is most like a Peter Mandelson-type character, now using his media savvy to persuade and ultimately trick the ‘powers-that-be’ into welcoming Richard onto the English throne as their best option. Following Richard’s crowning as King, Buckingham is all too easily cast aside, permanently and unjustly, along with others who prove to be an encumbrance to Richard’s totalitarian ambition as he journeys towards a predictable end.
Acoustics in the performance space are sometimes a frustration, especially when the actors’ backs face the audience. But thankfully this does not appear to detract from the observer’s overall engagement with the complex business. To overcome this deficiency sometimes microphones are used, however usually as part of a staged scene. The scale of the set and the expanse of the performance space compared to the numbers of cast on stage and their action seems at times to feel incongruous and the pace of the two halves also appears quite different.
However, overall this was a really engaging must-see show!
Reviewed by Peter Gray on: Friday 2nd October 2015, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds and runs until 17th October 2015