Amazed with Kevin Spacey as Richard III

To be simple, III. Richard, was amazing. Not only because the master actor Kevin Spacey was starring, but the work in total was a great portrayal of Shakespearean literature in a stunning and exciting way.

In the beginning of the play, I got confused with the complexity of all the characters and their names – and many characters had the same name! Only after the first 20 minutes, I managed to understand who was who. Then I really started to enjoy, as I saw more of Spacey’s acting of the wicked monarch. The rise and fall of a hero or anti-hero is a typical theme of Shakespeare’s plays and in this case, Richard was a villainous and cruel anti-hero. Even though he was behind his brother and cousins in the line of succession, throughout the first act of the play, he made his own way on to the British throne, through murder, trickery and fraud. Both physically and morally corrupt, he is full of hatred toward life and people around him and with Spacey’s great acting, use of tone and mimics, we feel the jealousy and lust for power he holds so deeply. The conspiracies inside the royalty were very enjoyable to watch.

Also there were many examples of foreshadowing so that the audience can guess most of the time what is going to happen. Music and sound effects made me feel almost inside the play. There were many humourous elements inside the tragic overall plot.

It was amazing to see a whole theater full of people sitting for three and a half hours in place, without a budge, laughing, wondering, surphing on the Shakespearian waves of emotions, words and feelings., together with an electrified Spacey filling the stage in an unforgettable imagery.