Richard III...
Richard III is a difficult play. It is difficult to watch and difficult to interpret. Certainly, it starts off quite clear, the setting and time being, "the winter of our discontent," but discontent is too soft a word to describe what will happen next. Shakespeare was very clear in part of the opening speech when the uncrowned hobbled hunchback roams the empty stage and declares that he can, "frame my face to the occasion." Framing he does...to every occasion, such that the audience never really knows what Richard is truly thinking and feeling is real, or whether it is all charade.
All amateur casts struggle with Shakespeare. There is much drama, pf course, but to act to it all the time can make it all over done and too transparently "trying" to be Shakespearean. On the other hand, to under play it all can cause the performance to be flat and uninteresting when passionate words ring hollow to the stilted acting out of them.
This performance showed what earnest amateur actors can do to show the incredible duplicity that a main tragic anti-hero like Richard can inflict on others (mostly family) around him. And, the supporting cast does a terrific job of showing how much emotional and physical pain is attached to the crimes Richard commits.
RPW
All amateur casts struggle with Shakespeare. There is much drama, pf course, but to act to it all the time can make it all over done and too transparently "trying" to be Shakespearean. On the other hand, to under play it all can cause the performance to be flat and uninteresting when passionate words ring hollow to the stilted acting out of them.
This performance showed what earnest amateur actors can do to show the incredible duplicity that a main tragic anti-hero like Richard can inflict on others (mostly family) around him. And, the supporting cast does a terrific job of showing how much emotional and physical pain is attached to the crimes Richard commits.
RPW