On October 9th, the senior English IV CP and AP English class as well as the juniors from honors English IV and the sophomores from honors English III, were able to witness one of Shakespeare’s earlier performances titled Richard III. King Richard III only ruled England for two years, between 1483 and 1485, but is well known by scholars as one of the most historic and turbulent kings to ever hold the throne. His path to the throne, however, was not a clean one. Richard III is personally held responsible for deaths of his royal siblings, and kings alike, such as his nephews Edward and Richard, as well as King Henry VI. Well known play writer William Shakespeare wrote this play for Queen Elizabeth I when he was only in his early twenties. He purposefully portrayed Richard III as a tyrannical beast, yet this play was one of the earliest examples of Shakespeare giving a character a three dimensional profile. This aspect gave the king a psychological background unlike his characters in his previous plays. Shakespeare reflected Richard III’s mentality when he wrote, “True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures’ kings.”
This play was the production of the Great Lakes Theater Festival which took place at Hanna Theater of Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. This production was modernized to attempt to relate the historical story to modern day students. For example, the stage resembled a jungle gym of metal, like a corporate office design. The characters used guns instead of swords, and communicated with each other on their cell phones. The costumes were more modern, consisting of 50’s style suits and dresses. The language used, however, was kept in the historical context of Shakespearian literature. Guided study teacher Ms. Tersigni told me, “What they did with the play was positive by trying to make it relate to modern day, but still keeping the Shakespearian atmosphere alive.”
Students who went to see the play had mixed emotions about what they did with the modern and medieval mash-up. Senior Erik Krizman said, “The play seemed to jump around in time too much.” Another senior, Sonia Zimmerman, added, “The way the modern day themes, as well as the clothing and the historical ideas, all mixed up together was very confusing.” From what I could tell, the class thought that the addition of modern day themes somewhat took away from the actual message of the play in some points, but also added clarity in others. In an instance of confusion, during the last act of the play when the Red Roses were planning to attack, the actors declared to raise their swords, when they actually raised their gun props. The fact of the matter is that the style of interpretation did not take away from the excellent performance that was displayed to our class. I can agree with junior Kayla Seman when she said, “I really enjoyed the acting!” Overall, Richard III had its ups and downs, but was a great show. I am very pleased with the choice of play by our English teachers. One way I would make things different, however, would be to keep it entirely original, or not mix up the time periods so much that the actors end up becoming a cluster of time travelers.