Brilliantly Twisted: A 'Richard III' That Rules

Geraint Wyn Davies in the title role of the Shakespeare Theatre Company production, with Matthew Williams and Kent Jenkins as the doomed young princes. (By Carol Rosegg -- Shakespeare Theatre Company)

Who wouldn't be repulsed by the Richard of Michael Kahn's new "Richard III"? With disfigured foot, withered arm and a facial scar that gives him the look of a crinkle-cut french fry, this Richard has been fashioned with a profile so creepy that one wouldn't necessarily have to be informed of inner ugliness to sense a deformed soul.

Add a half-mask and he'd be the Phantom of the Plantagenets. And therein lies the challenge for the actor, Geraint Wyn Davies, who plays him in this uncommonly intelligent production: Make of this Richard an irresistible force despite his extremely resistible appearance. "Rudely stamped," as one member of the royal retinue characterizes him. And he truly is.

The idea of a realm being compelled to bend to the treacherous will of one so physically ill-equipped for public life is reinforced again and again in Kahn's sure-handed staging. It's the power of Richard's rhetoric, his ability to twist language to his own advantage, that overwhelms those who stand in his way, from his gullible brother Clarence (Andrew Long) to the duplicitous Buckingham (Edward Gero) to the bride Richard makes of Lady Anne (Claire Lautier), whose husband and father-in-law he's only recently slain.

Even the work of set designer Lee Savage seems based on a world skewing in favor of Richard's perfidy. The entire production is performed on a stage tilted sideways.

Wyn Davies, seen heretofore by Washington audiences in comic roles -- he was Shakespeare Theatre's swashbuckling Cyrano and a foppish Don Armado in last season's "Love's Labor's Lost" -- pulls in the reins on charm on this occasion. His Richard is more strategist than seducer, more engaged in the moving of chess pieces than in moving us. After he cleverly traps the hapless Lord Hastings (Raphael Nash Thompson) this Richard triumphantly exposes his ruse -- in the way a serial killer might leave behind clues for flummoxed detectives. A victory, it seems, for his amusement more than ours.

What results is a Richard, and a "Richard III," that are many things but not, well, delicious. It's often said that Richard is himself a gifted actor, one who revels in the art of persuasion. Wyn Davies plays him as if he loves the game more than the stage, and so there's less reason for us to feel bound to him, to feel as if we're his partner. Still, it's a robust portrayal, and the production surrounding it is lucid, beautifully articulated and intriguingly staged. The battle scenes choreographed by David Leong, using shadow and slow motion, are of premium caliber, the kind that reassure you that Shakespearean wars can still be fought in inventive ways.

The wretched royal women of this "Richard," too, are incisively brought to life, as vibrant manifestations of the never-ending game of who's-up-and-who's-down in the English succession to the throne. Kings and princely heirs go to their bloody rewards in "Richard III" like so many regal mayflies, but the growing ranks of widowed queens and bereaved queen mothers roam the castle corridors to the end of their natural days.

One of the great scenes in the play has these proud women comparing notes on the death toll: "Thou hadst an Edward till a Richard killed him; thou hadst a Richard till a Richard killed him . . ." The litany is recited as a splendid lamentation by Margot Dionne's Elizabeth, Pamela Payton-Wright's Duchess of York and Tana Hicken's mad Queen Margaret, the dowager widow of Henry VI who pricks the court's conscience with her dark premonitions.

Richard gets nothing but this sort of bad press throughout "Richard III," in which Shakespeare reiterated the belief of the period that Richard, the last of the Plantagenet kings, was a beast. (The reign of the Tudors -- of whom Shakespeare's patron, Elizabeth I, was one -- commenced with Henry VII's defeat of Richard.) But the playwright also did Richard the great service of making him unforgettable.

The play is long -- among Shakespeare's works, only "Hamlet" is longer -- and there are times in Kahn's production when the meticulous unraveling of Richard's murderous schemes becomes a bit laborious. Few productions, however, are as good at the unfolding of the plot and delineating the multitude of characters.

For clarity's sake, Kahn has also added his own opening tableau, placing us in the court of Richard's brother, King Edward IV (Floyd King). (The scene is echoed three hours later, at the end of the play.) In an even smarter touch, the very first image of the production is of housekeepers cleaning the prisonlike metalwork that makes up the walls and raised walkways of the stark set.

What's being mopped up is blood. Kingmaking isn't pretty.

Jennifer Moeller's costumes are of a piece with rampant savagery. Many of the royals wear animal skins, and when Wyn Davies emerges as king, the large length of black fur cape -- fake fur, by the way -- suggests something predatory, with prehensile abilities. The production's visual acuity extends to famous moments like the dream sequence, in which the sleeping Richard and the soon-to-be King Henry VII (David Gross) are visited by the ghosts of Richard's victims. Through a haze they wander zombie-style onto the stage, lighted from behind by designer Charlie Morrison.

Long and Gero are among the company veterans who skillfully assay the men who get in Richard's way. The actors, too, playing the assorted assassins hired by Richard make strong impressions, particularly Ian Bedford's imposing Sir James Tyrrel. Aubrey Deeker's slithery Catesby is suitably contemptible, and Lautier softly communicates the predicament of Lady Anne, who may be disgusted by Richard's advances, but understands the consequences of not submitting to him.

Wyn Davies may not be playing Richard as diabolically magnetic. What he is suggesting is less a monster than a brilliant manipulator taking full advantage of a tradition of violent succession. When at last he's been strung up -- literally, as if he were a bug in a web -- you feel less the catharsis of comeuppance than the sensation of the closing of just another of history's bloody chapters.

Richard III, by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Kahn. Sets, Lee Savage; costumes, Jennifer Moeller; lighting, Charlie Morrison; original music and sound, Martin Desjardins; fight choreographer, David Leong. With James Denvil, Melora Kordos, Matthew Williams, Kent Jenkins, Maria Kelly, Donald Carrier, Dan Crane, Matthew Stucky, Bill Hamlin, Lawrence Redmond, Ralph Cosham, Carl Palmer, James Ricks. About 3 hours. Through March 18 at Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 Seventh St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit http://www.shakespearetheatre.org.