As Goodman ploughs through the healthily sized speech that is so famously known as “know is the winter of our discontent” the effects crew cleverly coincide with the words he speaks to add another comic level, that has clearly been laid down by the director. As he assertively says the words "that dogs do bark at me", the noise of a pack of crazed Doberman’s comes from off-stage. Richard whips out a concealed blade from his walking stick, goes to the side of the stage, stabs at something just out of sight, then cleans blood from the blade. No more “barks” are aimed at Richard!
Very comic, yes, but Goodman's role continued in this fashion. Which led me to feel bored. It sounded as if he was waiting for things to happen in the play, that really weren’t going to. At one point half way through the 1st act he stuttered a line, the people around me laughed, which was harsh, but is to be expected if an actor of his caliber makes mistakes.
The interval….. Which was a break that I was really waiting for finally arrived. Would the rest of the play drag on in the same manner as the first, I hope not.
Alas my prayers had not been answered. The entire ordeal was melodramatic, too melodramatic, but that's Richard III, some may say Shakespeare’s most melodramatic piece.
It really was an animated performance from Goodman. His hobbling around the stage was both good and bad. At points his stature and mannerisms were hilariously funny, but then at others it seemed as if he needed waking up because he had forgotten he was playing a crippled war hero. His Richard is a monster, physically and morally, evil to the core and delighting in it. But Goodman meets his match in Sheila Reid's Queen Margaret. She is a figure straight from “The Wizard of Oz” more like a witch with her shock of wild white hair and a stick which she waves around with great ferocity.
Regrettably there is no heroine, to be found here. Lisa Stevenson's Lady Anne was far too poorly played. The scene in which Richard woos and wins her has always been unbelievable but the way in which the two bounce off each other with clever word-play makes up for it, but not here. It was, THE scene that let down the second act.
As for the rest of the cast - in particular the smarmy Hastings (Michael Hadley), the cunning Buckingham with his Warwick the “Kingmaker” (Malcolm Sinclair), and not forgetting the one and only Rivers (John Killoran), provided support for the lead roles, but nothing that could be seen as being a star studded performance.
However, the climax to this performance is well staged, with the new-king wheeled around on a cart to the sound of Japanese drums. But I still feel this is a play about the dynamics of power rather than the pathology of performance and that too much emphasis has been placed on Richard as showman rather than single-minded seeker of the hollow crown.
I get the impression that directors of Shakespeare, even at the RSC, feel the need to be different, to use an off-the-wall approach so as to showoff their individuality and personality in the play, and often not only do they fail abysmally but they bore the audience to near death.
I know Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most performed pieces, and this thought must circulate around the minds of all directors who decide to take up the challenge of putting on a show of it’s nature. But, I am still yet to see a performance of this play that keeps me entertained for the full 3 hours, rather than thinking about why we didn’t pay a little extra to sit in the comfier seats that are closer to the show.