A wonderfully evil and truly convincing portrayal of Richard by Jack Chedburn, who, through his brilliant physicality and garish facial expressions, struck an excellent balance between humour and malice. With a clear and measured deliverance of all his lines, Chedburn did not merely speak the lines of Richard III, but became the character.
Unfortunately, he was somewhat let down by the rest of the cast and performance, which felt at times less a convincing re-enactment of Shakespeare’s play, than an over-consciously acted recitation of the text which was lacking in any sustained emotional intensity or tragic atmosphere.
On the whole, rather than being a believable flow of emotion, the characters seemed to leap from extreme to extreme as if they had been told in which specific line to ‘do’ angry and when to ‘do’ otherwise, without fully submersing themselves in the body of the play. As Flossie Draper spoke the lines of Elizabeth following the death of her sons, “Ah, my young princes! ah, my tender babes!… hear your mother’s lamentation!”, she seemed to be almost challenging the audience to “hear” this “lamentation” in a performance that seemed strangely devoid of any such emotion.
The play did, however, make good use of the space available at the OFS, surrounding the audience with action, and providing an interesting way in which characters could be subtly present in scenes. Having the characters speaking from the wings during Richard’s dream was also very effective; the tormenting and overpowering voices affecting both Richard and the audience. However, the supernatural element of the play, introduced by Alice Hamilton, whilst adding an intriguing psychological dimension, was more of a distraction as she talked over the lines of other characters.
There were definite moments of strong acting from the supporting cast, notably Charlotte Bayley who gave a convincingly tragic portrayal of Anne, and Ed Boulle who played a slimy and wicked Buckingham. The two murderers also gave a memorable and comic performance. It was a good attempt at a difficult play, however the cast was not united, and there was no real atmosphere maintained. Thus, as is often the case with Shakespeare, in this production, it was the play that played the characters and not the other way around.
