Photo by Tony Lewis
Lars Eidinger’s Richard III is a magnificent monster, whispering his malicious intent into an old-fashioned microphone which dangles mid-stage and wooing the audience with feral charm. Whether stripping naked to seduce the grieving and discomforted Lady Anne beside the bier of Henry VI; glancing back at his words as they appear in surtitles on the stage and grinning at his own wickedness; or attempting to whip the audience into an abusive, baying mob, Eidinger’s performance (while it leans dangerously close to clown rather than Machiavellian genius) eclipses everyone around him – which results in a unbalanced production.
The women’s roles in particular suffer from Eidinger’s unrestrained presence, with Anne (a restrained Jenny Konig), a much-reduced Elizabeth (Eva Meckbach) and Queen Margaret (a bewigged and gowned Robert Beye playing the role entertainingly but unsubtly) pushed to the periphery. Richard’s mother is nowhere to be seen. The result is a production which feels too much like a one-man show, even when it’s not.
Directed by Thomas Ostermeier from a translation by Marius von Mayenburg, this Schaubühne Berlin production of Richard III also suffers from the sense that tonally it feels pulled in opposite directions, between horror (Christoph Gawenda’s Clarence drowning in mud and blood) and heavy-handed comedy (Richard playing at piety between two mock monks). Consequently there’s an occasional sense of the work idling a little, pausing to decide its next direction rather than being fully in gear; the result, especially at its climax, as Richard battles his demons at Bosworth Field, results in a palpable loss of energy.
The production is not without some exceptional elements, including the percussive, industrial score composed by Nils Ostendorf and played live by drummer Thomas Witte, which adds admirably to the mood of threat and menace. An exquisitely drawn-out sampling of Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ is also used to great effect, both building tension and undercutting Richard’s grab for power – a superman he is not. The decision to cast the soon-to-be-murdered Princes in the Tower as literal puppets, incapable of resisting Richard’s lust for power, is clever (and also overcomes the challenges and expense of taking child actors and their tutors and chaperones on tour) though reduces any frisson of horror at their deaths.
Less effective is the decision to dangle a bulky microphone and harness in the midst of the stage, as the apparatus sometimes obscures the surtitles – problematic for a play predominantly performed in German save for the odd comedic line (‘The Devil does not wear Prada!’).
Video components, which include flights of carrion crows foretelling war, and swarms of microbes and germs projected across the set as Richard’s sick reign is established, are also effective, as is its explosive opening scene – though unfortunately that initial energy is never quite recaptured as the remainder of the 2.5 hour production unfolds.
3 ½ stars out of 4
Richard III
By William Shakespeare
Director: Thomas Ostermeier
State Designer: Jan Pappelbaum
Costume Designer: Florence von Gerkan
Collaboration Costumes: Ralf Tristan Scezsny
Music: Nils Ostendorf
Drummer: Thomas Witte
Video: Sébastien Dupouey
Dramaturgy: Florian Borchmeyer
Light Designer: Erich Schneider
Puppeteers Training: Susanne Claus, Dorothee Metz
Fight Choreography: René Lay
Translation and version by Marius von Mayenburg
Cast includes Lars Eidinger as Richard III, Moritz Gottwald as Buckingham, Eva Meckbach as Elizabeth, and Jenny König as Lady Anne
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
3-9 March 2017
Adelaide Festival
www.adelaidefestival.com.au
3-19 March 2017
Richard Watts visited Adelaide as a guest of Adelaide Festival.
