Richard, My Richard

Guest review by Andrew Clarke.

Dynamic, urgent, atmospheric – just some of the adjectives that spring to mind when trying to sum up this terrific debut play from historian and author Phillipa Gregory. There is a saying that history is written by the victors, and here we are given the opportunity to hear Richard III’s story from his own point of view – thanks to Gregory’s imagination and research skills.

It speaks volumes for the current standing of the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds that it has been asked to co-produce this world premiere with the Shakespeare North Playhouse.

Inspiration has certainly struck as they have totally transformed the auditorium for this play – staging the action ‘in the round’ – removing the benches from the pit, putting the actors into the heart of the space and placing a section of the audience in tiered seating on the stage.

But, this is no po-faced lecture even though our flamboyant host tries to suggest it is. The action is told with a mixture of tongue-in-cheek humour, drama, smoke and fury – plus some stylised movement in places.

Audiences do have to keep their wits about them as there is a tangled web of different noble houses to keep tabs on, as they ally and betray one another in their ambitious ‘do or die’ plots to steal the throne of England. Helpfully, there is a two page family tree in the programme which is well worth studying before the play begins. There is also a comic reminder onstage, complete with name banners, to help set it in our heads.

The play opens in the present – in that infamous Leicester car park. We are introduced to Richard by History. History is a person – a character tasked with keeping tabs on all the documents and media that makes up the official record. He carries with him a large, rough-bound book which details the events surrounding The Wars of the Roses.

History is engagingly played by Tom Kanji, wearing long, open cream coat, which he swirls and flicks for dramatic/comic effect. He is explaining the complexities of his job to us when the ground starts to move, a slab slides open, mist starts to emerge from a tomb-like hole, soon followed by a hand and then the rest of a resurrected King Richard. History pleads with him to lie back down and to go back to sleep but Richard is no waking child, troubled with a make-believe nightmare. He wants to set the record straight. He wants to rewrite history – much to the chagrin of History himself: “Does he not understand how much work this is?” He can’t delete the well-established version of events just on his say-so. Where’s the corroborating documentation? But, Richard will not be denied.

What follows is a dramatic retelling of Richard’s rise and fall and the roles played by the more ambitious members of his court – including some astute and powerful women who knew that behind every great King there is an even greater Queen.

The characters dart about the dais-like stage like pieces in a particularly deadly game of real-life chess.

Gregory has a wonderful talent for turning dry historic icons into believable human beings with their attendant flaws, passions and moments of madness. We see history being written and re-written as a kind of heightened, waking dream, beautifully staged and directed by East Anglian director, Katie Posner. Together they bring history to life – if only it could be taught in schools this way.

Through Gregory’s well-written dialogue, snappily delivered by the universally excellent cast, it quickly becomes clear that, contrary to the beliefs of Victorian schoolteachers, history is not fixed. The past remains fluid – ready for the re-examination of documentary evidence with each passing generation.

On stage, as Richard rises again, key elements of his story get quickly reassessed. Where is his hump? He never had one. Did he kill his brother’s children – the Princes in the Tower? No, says Richard, “Why would I?”. Who did, then? Perhaps Margaret Beaufort who was playing various nobles off one another so she could install her son, Henry Tudor, onto the throne.

It becomes clear why The War of the Roses provided the template for Game of Thrones with its tangled web of deceit and duplicity.

This is a dazzling production, intelligently staged and well-thought through. The brilliant soundscape and some dramatic lighting help give the piece an ethereal feeling of otherness which enhances the decision to move the acting space into the pit.

Great use is also made of choreographed movement throughout the play. Sections like The Battle of Bosworth are powerful, dramatic, stylised dance rather than conventional theatrical reconstruction of an epic moment of history. House banners get torn down by a lurching Richard as nobles fall on the battlefield.

The actors - Tori Burgess, Matt Concannon, Tyler Dobbs, Tom Kanji, Jennifer Matter, Kyle Rowe, Mary Savage and Laura Smithers - not only swap hats and costumes as they double-up on various parts, but also alter their physical performance to leave no-one in any doubt as to who they are.

Quite simply this was a dazzling night at the theatre and a reminder of the transformative power of live entertainment. Catch it if you can.

Richard, My Richard is at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds until 27 April 2024.

FOR FULL SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE

The New Bluesville Night

King Arthur

Suffolk on Stage