Richard the III
As you all know this was the entire reason for my flying over to Sydney. I was very excited to see Kevin Spacey perform theatre. I had heard only good things about his on stage performances and Richard the III was a Shakespeare play I was unfamiliar with.
Sadly, it just didn't live up to what I thought it would.
Sam Mendes was directing and after his stellar collaboration with Spacey in American Beauty - one of my favourite films, I was expecting very much from them. The film was created on a low budget yet it was such a spectacle, the colours and the scenes were very big.
Unfortunately, this wasn't recreated in his adaptation of Richard the III. I don't think I can fault Spacey's performance as much as I think the direction and production was pretty lousy.
I had the sense that the people involved thought it would simply be enough to have Spacey there and that little other effort needed to be expended. This was enormously disappointing when I reflect on how massive their budget would have been and the potential this play had to be truly great.The story is incredible and the script does so much of the work for the play. Unfortunately Spacey was pulling on what another reviewer described as 'cheap laughs' from the audience. He'd put a sarcastic note on a line and the crowd would be rolling in the aisles laughing. It was a little embarrassing to be amongst such a grateful crowd. It also didn't do Spacey any favours; the script is already funny without conveying the lines as though to an audience of children.
Predictably enough, it was the Kevin Spacey show. None of the other characters were well developed enough throughout the play for the audience to form any loyalty or bond with them, so when inevitably Richard the III does away with them, we didn't really care. This was a big fail, Richard the III revolves enough around Richard as the central character for everyone to get their fill of Spacey, I feel as though more time could have been dedicated to the other characters/actors.
Though perhaps when I say 'more time' I ought to bite my tongue. The production went for 3.5 hours. Easily at least an hour too long. Beginning at 8pm we were leaving the theatre close to midnight and we'll past the time I’d like to be in bed curled up with a book, it was a real effort to hold my concentration.
With great empathy for the actors I also need to mention that there were no microphones. This wouldn't be an ordeal for such wonderful actors as were there that night, had the play not lasted so long, not to mention it was in a theatre that held 2000 people. When there were scenes which involved shouting much of the language was lost to the hoarse shouting of the cast. They were done a great injustice for no reason.
When it was finally over our little group of 4 seemed to be the only ones not giving a standing ovation. I again felt embarrassed to be surrounded by people who were just drooling over seeing Spacey live, who were so star struck that they were too blinded to see that the play they just watched was below par.
As we left everyone was gushing, one theatre goer remarked 'Well! That was certainly an experience!’ I have to agree, it's the first time in my life that I've almost fallen asleep during a play.
When talking to my mum and some friends of hers later I realised without knowing it they were describing the play perfectly. They have Serbian accents and they sometimes pronounce 'th' as 't' and thus Richard the Third became...'Richard the Turd'. A wonderfully succinct way to summarise the way I felt about the whole thing.
Gross und Klein review to come.
Nani x
