Richard III - 1999
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by B.D. Rogers

Notes from the Dramaturg, Janis Lull:

Shakespeare portrays Richard III, Duke of Gloucester and younger brother of King Edward IV, as a man who hates peace and loves war. The Wars of the Roses ravaged England for 60 years, but they seem to be over as the play begins. The Yorks have put Edward on the throne. Richard and his brothers have killed Prince Edward, heir to the house of Lancaster, and Richard has stabbed old King Henry VI in the Tower. Margaret, Henry's queen, wanders the land as a kind of ghost. But Richard cannot rest easy with this victory. He plots to steal the crown for himself, and woe to those who stand in his way, including beautiful young widow Anne, older brother Clarence, the King and Queen, and even the innocent young princes.

Was Richard III really such a killer? Historians suggest that if Richard executed his political enemies, so did other English kings of the period. Why, then, did Richard get the blame? It was partly because Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, killed Richard and ended the Wars of the Roses for good. Richmond then became King Henry VII, grandfather of Elizabeth I and begetter of a long period of peace and relative prosperity. But even in Richard's own time, rumor circulated about his tyranny, deformity, and unnatural birth. Perhaps he was a hateful man, or perhaps he just had the bad luck to reign for only two years and to be followed by the Tudors, who brought peace instead of war.

For Shakespeare, however, Richard becomes a kind of super-villain. He is intelligent, energetic, and often funny. He confides his plots to the audience as if only he and the spectators are smart enough to see the truth. He tricks Kind Edward and the rest of the court, wins Anne for his wife, and even puts down old Queen Margaret, whose eerie curses frighten everyone else. Richard and his co-conspirator, the Duke of Buckingham, fool or intimidate everyone who clutters Richard's path to the crown. But once he ascends the throne, Richard's confidence starts to falter. He decides he needs to murder his little nephews, whom he has already locked in the Tower. Queen Anne kills herself, and Richard resolves to marry his own niece. Between him and this new goal stands only the girl's mother, Queen Elizabeth, already demoralized by the death of her husband and two young sons. Can she stop Richard when everyone else has failed? The answer turns out to be yes. Elizabeth holds her own in a furious debate with Richard and stalks off to arrange the girl's marriage to the invading Earl of Richmond. Richard goes to war with the curses of the women-Margaret, Elizabeth, and his own mother the Duchess, ringing in his ears.

In the final scene, the ghosts of all he has murdered come to Richard in a dream and predict his defeat. To the Earl of Richmond, napping nearby, the ghosts promise success and victory. Richard wakes in a cold sweat, afraid for perhaps the first time in his life. But he rejects the urge to repent and flings himself into the last battle, more forceful and bitter than ever. He cannot win, but he will not go quietly. Shouting his more famous line, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse," Richard falls. Richmond, the new king, promises "smooth-faced peace" and inaugurates a new era for medieval England.