Richard III

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Barbican on 19 February 2017

Thomas Ostermeier directed members of the Schaubühne Berlin company in a startling production of Shakespeare's play rendered in modern German prose by Marius von Mayenberg. Lars Eidinger played the king, supported by Moritz Gottwald as Buckingham, Eva Meckbach as Elizabeth, and Jenny König as Lady Anne, with others taking multiple parts. The set was designed by Jan Pappelbaum.

It is always fascinating to see Shakespeare performed in another language, though of course the surtitles tend to make use of the original text, thus re-familiarising the work. (At times, some lines were repeated in English, and the non-Shakespearean comments to the audience were also in English.) Here, too, was a very modern design, an almost bare stage dusted with sand, with a huge wall at the back containing a ceremonial exit in the middle (usually covered by hung carpets), with less conspicuous exits on either side and on an upper level accessed by a set of stairs and a ladder. In fact, it was a stage formally similar to classical Greek or Roman theatres, but with a modern or timeless feel. An electric cable suspended from above allowed a small spotlight and microphone to be constantly available for Richard's asides and interior musings.

The men were in suits, the women in sober dress. Richard first appeared in black trousers and a white tee-shirt stretched over a prominent hump; one of his shoes was grotesquely larger than the other, forcing Lars Eidinger to adopt an uncomfortably tortured gait. His delivery was sardonic, knowing, at times shambolic, at times devilish, always seeking to connive with the audience to admire his brazen daring and his success.

This is often an ambition in a production, but I have rarely seen it attacked in such a bold way. It is not often that an actor would establish such a crippled physical presence and then proceed to strip himself entirely naked at the culmination of the already unsettling scene in which he woos the Lady Anne (having killed her previous husband and her father-in-law). But that is what happened here - Richard suddenly had only the black hump strapped to his shoulder as he begged Anne to kill her if she really wished to demonstrate her detestation instead of  just mouthing insults. As if this were not strange enough, shortly afterwards Eidinger broke out of character entirely to discuss the issue of nudity on stage, claiming it was more embarrassing for him than for the audience. After that, it hardly seemed a shock that Clarence should die a gruelling death vomiting blood while writhing naked on the floor (one could well allow for a prisoner in this world being naked with only a blanket to cover him). Other deaths, being a series of executions, were thankfully conducted off-stage.

Richard's performance as a performer continued to be the linchpin of the production, reminding us that his villainy was to be appreciated as a work of art for us to admire; the sheer staginess of it won several well-deserved laughs and even some bursts of applause. But it was also insidious. Two particularly non-Shakespearean insults (in English) aimed at Buckingham gave Richard the opportunity to insist that the audience should respond pantomime style and suddenly those who obeyed were shouting a vulgar obscenity as if Trump should be emulated rather than scorned for his alleged 'locker-room banter'. Perhaps this was a salutary reminder that what we were seeing on stage was not just a remote play dealing with events half a millennium ago, but rather with something that is always with us. Certainly to hear a German actor lament pointedly on the state of governance in England was also an uncomfortable moment, though it predictably generated more amusement and applause.

The play was intelligently cut to last two and a half hours without an interval. This meant conflating several minor characters and shortening or removing a number of scenes, Buckingham's fate being the most notable omission from Richard's side, and the female chorus of condemnation being more or less ignored as the dowager Duchess of York made no appearance. Cunningly, Richmond made no appearance at all, so that he seemed to be Richard's nemesis in his own disintegrating mind - the final showdown was a bravura display of despearation as Richard bounded round the stage sword in hand fighting invisible enemies. We missed, therefore, the words of the victorious new Tudor king, but the concentration here was so much on the figure of Richard rather than the wider issue of England's fate, that this was not a real loss at all.