King Richard III by William ShakespeareMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Richard’s power to compel those who have excellent reasons to hate him strains credulity, and requires significant charisma in an actor to pull off. On the page his tricks are funny but hard to take seriously. He is still a bit of a stock character – a personification of Vice rather than an actual person. The most interesting choice Shakespeare makes is to contrast Richard’s rise to power with a chorus of female queens who curse him for destroying their families – a foreshadowing of the way Macbeth’s fall is prophesied by the witches. The women have their revenge at the end, although the abrupt ending eludes catharsis. Basically, Richard III walked so Macbeth could run.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment