Richard III: Portrait Of A Serial Killer
Intiman's first-ever Richard III opened last Friday. 25 actors pack onto the company's intimate stage for the scheming, slander, and swordplay of Shakespeare's morality play. It runs through July 15. Tickets are $27 - $46, but if you're under 25, prove it and they'll sell you a ticket for $10 for any performance. $20 rush tickets (if any) go on sale 15 minutes before curtain time. [Box Office: 206-269-1900.]
The costumes are period, while the set is exposed scaffolding set against a cinderblock wall, giving the impression of a castle undergoing a modern-day upgrade. Perched in its heights are three musicians who send a cascade of military beats thrumming over the audience throughout the play. The large cast deals with the demands of Shakespearean acting unevenly, but the work of Timothy McCuen Piggee as Lord Hastings, Michael Winters as the Duke of Buckingham, and Suzanne Bouchard as Queen Margaret are worth the price of admission. Tammy Taecker (Mistress Shore) manages to speak volumes without much in the way of lines at all.
We call it a morality play because the historical Richard III may not have been the malevolent fiend Shakespeare portrays. Frankly, it may be more interesting if you forget about the family trees involved (they're extensive), and just watch as Richard navigates the game of royal succession by knocking off anyone who gets in his way. When he finally lands on the King Me! space on the board, he finds there's much more to leading a country than gaming the selection process. His overthrow provides one of the more graphic battles to the death we've seen onstage.
"Richard III is about tyranny," says director Bartlett Sher, "and what it takes for people to stand up and oppose it." We think Richard III is about a sociopath born into a power-hungry society.
Because it's normal to pursue power, they take too long to notice that no one is safe from him, not even the privileged -- in this play, what it takes for people to oppose tyranny is that the aristocracy has to flee Richard's paranoia, and those who remain faithful to the office of the King find out there's no upside to their loyalty. Michael Winters' oily, back-scratching Duke of Buckingham cuts and runs because Richard doesn't come across with a promised real estate deal.
Perhaps as a result of this focus on the people who must stand up to him, Stephen Pelinski's Richard, while doggedly determined to have that crown, doesn't inspire the horrific awe he might. The audience is inclined to chuckle at his asides, which ought, as the play progresses, creep us out more than amuse. It should be a bit like discovering that witty go-getter you're on the second date with is named T. Bundy.
The difficulty with playing a sociopathic Richard, if you've been trained in emotional arcs and subtext, is that you're limited to a keen desire for self-preservation, and a fixation on gaining the power needed for an ultimate emotional security. The motivation is cold-sweat fear and frozen anger. We're planning to return later and see if Pelinski will get there. There were flashes on opening night, and the scene where he's confronted with his murders was gripping.
Sher's work with the ensemble means the plottings and evasions that make up much of the action are more engrossing than usual -- in this production, even when Richard is offstage, there is feuding and fighting to spare. Suzanne Bouchard's Queen Margaret, who in anger and grief curses everyone involved with her loss, stalks about the stage throughout, not wanting to miss a second of anyone's misery. And Timothy McCuen Piggee's dutiful Lord Hastings, found at home to be a cheerful, expansive man intent on safely steering the ship of state, was a revelation.
Not everyone's a natural Shakespearean -- a few members of the cast tried to play their character's emotions while wading through language they were adrift in. In Shakespeare, an English accent isn't needed, just the knowledge that the English tend to put considerable emotional expression into word choice: ''What black magician conjures up this fiend / To stop devoted charitable deeds?'' asks Anne when Richard interrupts her mourning. That one line tells you why she'll fall for his wheedling, "lovestruck" spiel just a few minutes later. He's a magic man, mama.
Photos: Chris Bennion
