Almost A Tragedy: Richard III by Shakespeare
We saw a RADA performance of Richard III last summer on the Queen Mary 2 sailing across the North Atlantic to Southampton. I was struck by how tragic the play is even if it is supposed to be one of the histories. It reminds me of Macbeth. Richard aspires to be king the way Macbeth does. He commits crimes and must pay the price. In the end he dies defending his kingdom, again like Macbeth. Macbeth must fight the woods that come to Dunsinane. Richard cries out, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” while carrying on a battle against Richmond.In the RADA production we saw underlined the ever-growing dark quality of the drama by their staging: flowers were laid on the stage by the gravestone of the newest victim. Richard’s wife, Anne, grieves for her sins in marrying Richard and being seduced by him even as Lady Macbeth goes mad. The ghosts of the slain rise up against Richard in his sleep before his end while Macbeth is always grappling with witches and the supernatural[[ASIN:1613821808 Macbeth]]. Of course the only reason Richard III doesn’t number among the Shakespearian tragedies is because of Tudor politics. Richard was on the wrong side in the Wars of the Roses. He was the enemy of Queen Elizabeth’s family. Shakespeare was forced to render the character of Richard in two dimensions instead of three.
We saw a RADA performance of Richard III last summer on the Queen Mary 2 sailing across the North Atlantic to Southampton. I was struck by how tragic the play is even if it is supposed to be one of the histories. It reminds me of Macbeth. Richard aspires to be king the way Macbeth does. He commits crimes and must pay the price. In the end he dies defending his kingdom, again like Macbeth. Macbeth must fight the woods that come to Dunsinane. Richard cries out, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” while carrying on a battle against Richmond.In the RADA production we saw underlined the ever-growing dark quality of the drama by their staging: flowers were laid on the stage by the gravestone of the newest victim. Richard’s wife, Anne, grieves for her sins in marrying Richard and being seduced by him even as Lady Macbeth goes mad. The ghosts of the slain rise up against Richard in his sleep before his end while Macbeth is always grappling with witches and the supernatural[[ASIN:1613821808 Macbeth]]. Of course the only reason Richard III doesn’t number among the Shakespearian tragedies is because of Tudor politics. Richard was on the wrong side in the Wars of the Roses. He was the enemy of Queen Elizabeth’s family. Shakespeare was forced to render the character of Richard in two dimensions instead of three.